In short, Godden tells the story of the time she shared a “jazz cigarette” with Duke Ellington, sports columnist Royal Brougham’s penchant for performing back-alley abortions, and the time former editor Lou Guzzo drank a bottle of absinthe and declared himself “Duke of all the West.”
In other (less made-up) P-I news:
My grandmother, Anne Stuart, was a reporter for the Seattle P-I from 1940 to 1947. My grandfather (and Ms. Stuart’s husband) Robert W. Kelley was a photographer for the Seattle Times. (Kelley would later work at LIFE magazine.)
Before the bad-old JOA days, the Times and P-I were in competition with each other, so Mr. and Mrs. Robert W. Kelley couldn’t talk about their work assignments at home.
“I’m going out, and I can’t tell you where,” Bob Kelley would say.
“Well, I’m going out, and I can’t tell you where!” answered his wife Anne.
With the sexual mores of that day, I’m told this kind of exchange was quite scandalous.
Will – that last bit about your grandparents was toooo funny. Reminds me up some conversations I have had with family members who:
worked on secret government projects
worked on secret private industry projects
We would sit around and say things like:
How is work going? Oh, never mind. Or I could tell you , but I would have to kill you….or how about them sports teams….in response to work questions….
Writing can be a dangerous profession. Apart from the dozens of journalists killed in Iraq (some of whom may have been intentionally targeted by American troops), there is the delicate matter of writing something that may offend religious fanatics or some autocrat.
Just today, for example, an Australian novelist was sentenced to 3 years in a Thailand jail for writing a few fictional sentences about a fictional Thai prince that the book obliquely depicted as having turbulent martial relations. He was grabbed off a plane in Bangkok while flying to Australia and, according to news reports, pleaded guilty after enduring “unspeakable suffering” during his pretrial detention.
In Thailand, criticizing or insulting the monarchy is a crime. In the United States of America, criticizing or insulting Republican political leaders — no matter how inept, corrupt, or wrong — is unpatriotic if not outright rreason, and if Republicans had their way, anyone criticizing or insulting their organ grinder monkey would be doing jail time or worse. When it comes to intolerance of critics and dissenters, Republicans are every bit as fanatical as the mullahs who put a price on novelist Rushie’s head.
Makes you wonder whether Republicans aren’t closet monarchists, doesn’t it? We already know Republicans are religious fanatics, but I’ve long suspected that, deep down inside, they’re also fucking Tories who want to replace our democracy with a king and hereditary nobility. They sure act that way when they write tax laws.
extremism and fundamentalism are the same across all cultures.
Liberals are every bit as fanatical as the mullahs who put a price on novelist Rushie’s head. Witness the attacks on average people who voted yes on Proposition 8 in CA.
Loons
Makes you wonder whether Democrats are still progressive eugenics believers, doesn’t it?
Loons
Perhaps fools like Puddy will realize that when you are part of an extreme, tiny, miserable minority of people who’s only hope now is that America fails – nobody cares about you or what you think.
Americans bent Puddy and idiots like him over on Nov 4 and fucked them and him in the ass.
Enjoy Tuesday fools. You have no choice. Democrats won and there is not one single thing you can do about it.
Bend over. We’re going to serve you what we like for the next 8 years.
Tiny minority StillBentOver – 55 Million Adults and many more who didn’t like McCain (me included) who are more conservative is a really tiny minority.
BTW StillBentOver – did you get your Botox injection?
Gotta put on that phony look!
My son had to sign a pretty exhaustive confidentiality agreement before he got his new job, in part because he checked the box on his employment application which asked if he, or any member of his family had ever worked in the same industry.
So now when I see him our conversations go like this: “How was work today?” “Tough”. Why, what happened?” “Can’t talk about it.”