In my world, if it bleeds, it’s skipped. Here are a few excerpts from the morning paper:
“Lorenzo Robinson, the longtime and loquacious men’s room sentry at the lofty 21 Club died. Now..the restaurant’s general manager said he expected to put a small plaque honoring him in the men’s room ‘and call it a day,’ without replacing him…
” ‘They really are a throwback to another era…like a hat check girl. Who wears a hat any more? What are you going to do–check your Yankees baseball cap?’ “
and
“Are there words that are universally understood across all countries and cultures? A team of linguists has proposed one: ‘huh.’ ”
and Artemis Cooper, who just wrote a biography of Leigh Fermor, was quoted: “It’s a terrible thing being a biographer. One is such a rat.”
And finally: When people ask me what is the right size cage for a macaw..there is no right size cage for a macaw. It’s 35 square miles.”
So much for the Times.
The Wall Street Journal had a piece about Norman Rockwell, with this interesting painting I’d never seen before, called “The Connoisseur.” In it, a figure (Rockwell?) contemplates a Jackson Pollock painting (which, of course, Rockwell painted). About Pollock, Rockwell, the most representational of painters, said, “If I were young, I’d paint like that.”
In a story about director Robert Evans and shirts for the Great Gatsby, he recounts seeing a shirt he liked while shooting in London, and going to Turnbull & Asser to see if he could have it by the end of the week. He was told: “Mr. Evans, it takes three months to make a shirt. And not less than three months. I know who you are, but we also take care of Prince Charles, Prince Phillip and this Duke and Gianni Angelli. And they wait. I think you’ll have to do the same.”
He replied, “I don’t think so, Mr. Williams. I’m doing ‘Gatsby.’ There’s a scene where Robert Redford opens the door of his closet and you see 50 shirts. There are two ways of shooting it. One is: He opens the door and the camera goes on his eyes. The other one is over the shoulder, and you see all 50 shirts and they’re Turnbull & Asser.” He looks at me and says, “You’ll have your shirt on Friday, Mr. Evans.” Which I did, and I became his biggest customer.
As for adjusting to daylight savings, Larry says: “It’s depressing to be up for hours and find out it’s only 9 o’clock.”