Written by Rockmeteller Todd to his Aunt Isobel
Letter 1:
My Dearest Aunt,
How can I ever thank you enough for giving me the opportunity to live in this astounding city? New York seems more wonderful every day.
I was out with the crowd at the Midnight Revels the other night. Everyone was there, Oscar Hammerstein looked in about one o'clock and got off a good story about Flo Ziegfeld. Billie Burke looked upset. She's very protective towards Flo.
The show at the Revels is wonderful. I'm enclosing a programme.
Tuesday night, a few of us went to the Frolics on the Roof. Bea Lilly gave us her impression of President Hoover in the bathroom. A muted performance, since Mrs Hoover was hovering nearby.
I thought I was in for a quiet night last night, but fate decreed otherwise. I ran into a few friends and they took me along to the 21. It was Thelma Gaultier's birthday, so we all had to wear hats. Doug Fairbanks did all sorts of stunts and made us roar. On screen or off, he is a most energetic fellow, and full of charm. Mary Pickford wasn't with him last night, but she kindly sent me her regards.
And so, to Harlem. The music is astounding. My piano lessons are really paying dividends. Though Willy 'The Lion' Smith says I've still got to work on my left hand.
The new show at the Apollo is even better than the last. The dancing was superb and Josephine Baker really cooking with gas in the Terpsichorean department.
Home at 3:30. It's odd. Even with only three or four hours sleep, I never seem to get tired.
The finest musicians in the land find their way to 52nd Street. The skill and versatility of some of them is enough to take your breath away.
Cole Porter's new musical, The Gay Divorce, opened last night. The party arfterwards was almost as good as the show itself and of course everybody who was anybody was there. I danced with an up-and-coming young actress called Bette Davis, who asked me to go out to the coast and try my luck in movies, but I don't think so.
Cole looked tired. He told George Burns and me that rehearsals for the show had been really difficult. But like myself, he really thrives on the noise and excitement and sheer energy that is Manhattan.
I must stop now. Pardon My English opens tonight, and I promised I'd be there.
Your affectionate nephew,
Rocky.
P.S. I have not yet touched on the sporting scene in New York. The sports fanatic is certainly well catered for. In baseball, basketball and the roller derby, the spirit of fair play is exemplified. 'May the best man win' is the cry.
Letter 2:
My Dear Aunt Isobel,
I was very surprised to get your letter saying that you don't want me to write any more reports on New York's nightlife.
I thought you were enjoying them. I've certainly enjoyed writing them.
I only hope this doesn't indicate any further deterioration in your health.
Your affectionate nephew,
Rocky.
* The contents of this post were borrowed from Jeeves and Wooster *
Thursday 1 August 2013
A Children's Book of American Birds
by Muriel Singer
(Ghost writer: Reginald Jeeves)
Excerpt 1:
Should any of you children be lucky enough to visit California, you may catch a glimpse of the acrobatic little Mexican Chickadee. You will learn much more about this rascal when you are grown-up and read Mr Alexander Worple's wonderful book, American Birds.
Excerpt 2:
Excerpt 3:
As Mr Alexander Worple says in his famous book, More American Birds, if you see a Sanderling spinning round in the water like a top, it's a Phalarope. You see, children, Phalaropes do look very like Sanderlings of course but they're famous for spinning round and round in the water. This is a picture of the Northern Phalarope. Isn't he a handsome little fellow?
* Contents of this post were borrowed from Jeeves and Wooster *
(Ghost writer: Reginald Jeeves)
Excerpt 1:
Should any of you children be lucky enough to visit California, you may catch a glimpse of the acrobatic little Mexican Chickadee. You will learn much more about this rascal when you are grown-up and read Mr Alexander Worple's wonderful book, American Birds.
Excerpt 2:
Often on a spring morning, as you walk through the fields, you will hear the sweet,
carelessly-flowing song of the Eastern Bluebird. When you are older, you must read
all about him in Mr Alexander Worple’s wonderful book, American Birds.Excerpt 3:
As Mr Alexander Worple says in his famous book, More American Birds, if you see a Sanderling spinning round in the water like a top, it's a Phalarope. You see, children, Phalaropes do look very like Sanderlings of course but they're famous for spinning round and round in the water. This is a picture of the Northern Phalarope. Isn't he a handsome little fellow?
* Contents of this post were borrowed from Jeeves and Wooster *
Review of Applied Ethics
"Kafka's Motorbike: A searing vision of the wounds our century has inflicted on traditional masculinity. It's positively Vonnegut-esque" - Bridget Jones.
Spinoza's Ethics - Proposition: "Self contentment can arise from reason, and only that contentment which arises from reason is the highest that can exist".
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak - Can The Subaltern Speak?: "White men saving brown women from brown men".
Joseph Stalin: "Socialism was Soviet Power plus the electrification of the whole country" - (Stalin's report to the Congress of Soviets in December 1920).
Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail".
Jacques Derrida: "There is nothing outside the text".
Claude Levi-Strauss: "The 'savage' mind has the same structures as the 'civilized' mind and that human characteristics are the same everywhere".
Sigmund Freud: The Oedipus complex and the castration complex.
Norbert Elias: Social existence and human behaviour.
Melanie Klein: The first person to use traditional psychoanalysis with young children.
Emile Durkheim: Institutionalized sociology.
Karl Marx: "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles".
Max Weber: The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.
Leviticus 11: "Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is wholly cloven-footed, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that may ye eat".
* Title of post inspired by Isabel Dalhousie*
Spinoza's Ethics - Proposition: "Self contentment can arise from reason, and only that contentment which arises from reason is the highest that can exist".
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak - Can The Subaltern Speak?: "White men saving brown women from brown men".
Joseph Stalin: "Socialism was Soviet Power plus the electrification of the whole country" - (Stalin's report to the Congress of Soviets in December 1920).
Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail".
Jacques Derrida: "There is nothing outside the text".
Claude Levi-Strauss: "The 'savage' mind has the same structures as the 'civilized' mind and that human characteristics are the same everywhere".
Sigmund Freud: The Oedipus complex and the castration complex.
Norbert Elias: Social existence and human behaviour.
Melanie Klein: The first person to use traditional psychoanalysis with young children.
Emile Durkheim: Institutionalized sociology.
Karl Marx: "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles".
Max Weber: The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.
Leviticus 11: "Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is wholly cloven-footed, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that may ye eat".
* Title of post inspired by Isabel Dalhousie*
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