"Get Your Gossip Here!"
citycabn (citycabn@gateway.net)
Thu, 28 Oct 1999 09:50:06 -0700
This morning, over cornflakes, Frederick crowed that *his* posts receive
much more attention than mine. For example, I calmly said.
F: My 20/20 post re a fish's favorite 20 books published in the 20th
century.
B: That! It has maybe 15 replies. There must be at least 100 posters and
hundreds more lurkers. Hardly call that attention.
F: Compared to yours.
B: Still, I'd say 20/20 was a failure.
F: Not yet. My post said compile them and post them over the next two
months. Pretty good so far. Plus, I have a strong belief that fishes are
about their business, and when it strikes them, they have a piece of paper
handy to note an addition or a deletion.
B: Finish your cornflakes.
***
Okay, Frederick's gone and it's *gossip time*!
Item: Read in my local rag a few days ago that Matt Salinger was quoted
that he is divorcing and is going to wed Joyce Maynard.
Oh, got it wrong: Matt Salinger was quoted as saying he and his dad were
not speaking with his sister because of, yes, that upcoming memoir. And Matt
said that it just was not right to use the word "catcher" in the title.
(Peggy's calling it "The Dream Catcher.") I would say to Matt *that* might
be the least of the problems. God help you all if Peggy has been
experiencing "recovered memory."
Item: Ran into Joyce Maynard in my local bookstore (she lives just north of
here across the Golden Gate Bridge). She looked really great, about 19
years old. She was with her Mother, and cooed that a new afterword was
included in the just released paperback version of *her* memoir. As fate
would have it, we all were standing next to a prominent stack and I did
notice an uncanny resemblance between Joyce and her Mother as they stood
before me and the cover itself. After they left, (after seeking directions
to the Famous Living Authors section) I did skim the afterword.
Duty-bound, I report that most of it sounded not *new* despite the
proclamation on the cover. JOYCE WROTE: No regrets...getting on with my
life ... helping other women speak out ...many heartwarming letters from
people she didn't know...letters from three women who also had a shoebox of
JDS letters written to them when they were 18 (all three were 18 when they
received their first letter) and each woman quoted passages from their JDS
letters that ran almost word for word to passages in Joyce's (and she then
clearly adds that the text of *hers* weren't made public) and one of the
women received her first JDS letter one *week* after Joyce was dismissed
from JDS's life...and to answer the question she has gotten most, Has JDS
contacted *her* in any way since the publication of the memoir: NO!
Item: Frederick sleeps in an oversized crib.
Okay, let's see how much Frederick's going to squirm tomorrow morning over
cornflakes.