BITS & PIECES OF A MISPLACED LIFE#11A

 
Remember that sometimes not getting 
what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck.
 The Dalai  Lama
 
Epigraph to A Wonderful Stroke of Luck 
by Ann Beattie (NY: Viking, 2019)
**

WHY I AM NOT A WORLD FAMOUS POET
 
When it comes to writing poetry,
I am out of my element:
Helium.
**

TALES OF HORROR
The tale of horror  and the supernatural fulfills 
one more valuable human function. Besides 
showing us where the taboo lines of our society 
lie, they emphasize the light by marking out that 
spot where the darkness takes over. The best tales 
in the genre make one point over and over again –
 that the rational world both within us and without
 us is small, that our understanding is smaller yet,
 and that much of the universe in which we exist is, 
so far as we are able to tell, chaotic. So the horror 
story makes us appreciate our own well-lighted 
corner of that chaotic universe.

Stephen King. :”Introduction” to Masters of Horror
 and the Supernatural : The Great Tales, compiled 
by Bill Pronzini, Barry N. Malzberg, & Martin H. Greenberg(New York: Bristol Park Books, 1981)

**

ON THE MOVIES & THE BIBLE    
Stanley Donen,  
Reading in the Bible about Onan,  
Thought: “Thanks to Bobby Breen,  
I cannot bring that story to the screen.  
**

 ON TELEVISION & MOVIE WESTERNS   

Wagon Train— 
It does not take Einstein’s brain 
To describe the plot: 
Settlers are attacked; Indians shot.    


  ON ADAPTING BOOKS FOR THE MOVIES 

Lewis, Jerry— 
Acquiring film rights to  I, The Jury,
 Announced: “I shall play Mike Hammer. 
Of course, I shall add a lot of physical humor!”  
**
  

 **      

SCHOLARLY NOTE TO LORD BYRON’S
DON JUAN (pronounced Don Chewin)
 
Don Juan,
Whatja doin’?
“Screwin’, screwin ‘
              & screwin’.”

CRITIC TAKE WARNING

Say what you will
About the joys of art,
Pleasure of rhyme,
Devotion & sacrifice,
Be profound as you dare,
But, Critic, take warning:
It does not mean very much
When there is no one
Breathing beside you
At 2 0'clock in the morning.
**

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