louisprofphillips

BITS & PIECES OF A MISPLACED LIFE: THE JOYS OF READING

DO NOT EAT THIS BOOK”Menelik II,the emperor of Ethiopia at the turn of the century,liked to chew pages from the Bible. Unfortunately, he died after consuming the complete Book of Kings.”Anne Fadiman. Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader(New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998)**ON BOOK REVIEWERS”Nothing but a bunch of ex-obituary writers.” John P.Continue reading “BITS & PIECES OF A MISPLACED LIFE: THE JOYS OF READING”

BITS & PIECES OF A MISPLACED LIFE: AMERICANA

**”We are the first nation in the history of the world to go to the poorhouse in an automobile.” Will Rogers**AN AMERICAN OLD WEST OUTLAWJohn Peters Ringo (May 3, 1850 – July 13, 1882) was an American Old West outlaw loosely associated with the Cochise County Cowboys in frontier boomtown Tombstone, Arizona Territory. He tookContinue reading “BITS & PIECES OF A MISPLACED LIFE: AMERICANA”

BITS & PIECES OF A MISPLACED LIFE: POETS & POETRY

POE or 30d EMILY DICKINSON COULD TALK YOUR HEAD OFF”Emily Dickinson could talk your head off with a remark. When I was in the early stages of writing her biography I ran across a few that put me on my guard. There was the one about the old lady who came to the door toContinue reading “BITS & PIECES OF A MISPLACED LIFE: POETS & POETRY”

BITS & PIECES OF A MISPLACED LIFE: WORDS,WORDS, WORDS

page from THE NEW CENTURY DICTIONARY For words, like Nature, half revealAnd half conceal the soul within. Alfred Lord Tennysonquoted in metaphors be with you by Mardy Grothe (New York: Harper, 2016)**COMIC BOOK SLANGSplash Panel — ” The first panel of a comic book story, larger (sometimes, or full page) than the other panels; itContinue reading “BITS & PIECES OF A MISPLACED LIFE: WORDS,WORDS, WORDS”

BITS & PIECES OF A MISPLACED LIFE: THE JOYS OF WRITING

ADVICE ON BECOMING A WRITER”Alex Trocchi urged aspiring writers to go off and spend a year playing pinball. I always thought that this was verygood advice, but I could never explain even to myself, why it made such sense…”Tom McCarthy. TYPEWRITERS BOMBS JELLYFISH(New York: New York Review Books,2017)**”Anybody that admires Thomas Wolfe can be expectedContinue reading “BITS & PIECES OF A MISPLACED LIFE: THE JOYS OF WRITING”

BITS & PIECES OF A MISPLACED LIFE: FILM #29

A STUNTMAN DESCRIBES SADDLE FALLS IN THE MOIVIE THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE “In the final dramatic sequence, where the Lancers charge the cannons of the Russian army, I took numerous ‘saddle falls’ rigged by ‘the running W.’ A cable was strung from an old car axle, driven in the ground, and then tiedContinue reading “BITS & PIECES OF A MISPLACED LIFE: FILM #29”

BITS & PIECES OF A MISPLACED LIFE: THIS & THAT

SCIENCE”Leave only three wasps alive in the whole of Europe and the air of Europe will still be more crowded with wasps than space is with stars.” James Jeans**HOW TO MAKE AN IMPRESSION OF A KEYSO YOU CAN MAKE AN IMPRESSION OF IT”Neat attention to detail: when The Jackal is making an impression of aContinue reading “BITS & PIECES OF A MISPLACED LIFE: THIS & THAT”

BITS & PIECES OF A MISPLACED LIFE: SHAKESPEARE

SHAKESPEARE’S MANUSCRIPTS”Not a single Shakespeare manuscript survives, so, as withChaucer, we cannot be sure how closely the work we know is really Shakespeare’s. Hemming and Condell consulted any number of sources to produce their folio — printers’ manuscripts, actors’ promptbooks, even the memoriers of other actors. But from what happened to the work of otherContinue reading “BITS & PIECES OF A MISPLACED LIFE: SHAKESPEARE”

BITS & PIECES OF A MISPLACED LIFE: FILM #28

THE QUEEN OF POVERTY ROW According to Richard Lamparski, in his seventh Whatever Became of Series…, “Poverty Row was a group of studios on and around Gower Street in Hollywood that produced low budget movies . Columbia Pictures, where Ms. (DOROTHY) Revier was under contract,was considered a ‘poverty Row’ studio until the mid-thirties. ” DorothyContinue reading “BITS & PIECES OF A MISPLACED LIFE: FILM #28”

BITS & PIECES OF A MISPLACED LIFE: AMERICANA #6

ADVERTISING IN LATE NINETEENTH & EARLY 20th CENTURY AMERICA”There was a certain amount of petty fraud often of a good-humored kind, in the advertising of the day. For instance,persons sending money for an advertised ‘Potato Bug Eradicator’ received two slivers of wood with the instructions ‘Place the potato bug between the two sticks of woodContinue reading “BITS & PIECES OF A MISPLACED LIFE: AMERICANA #6”