Re: catcher copies
Tim O'Connor (oconnort@nyu.edu)
Wed, 13 Aug 1997 12:24:50 -0400 (EDT)
> Well....ok....since now the conversation has changed from "how many" to
> "what's inside", my catcher book (which sadly is all alone) was bought at a
> used book store and has every single (no lie here) bad word, including the
> goddamn's, underlined. It seems the previous owner was slightly amused by
> the language and probably wanted a quick reference to show his friends.
> I hope this book I speak of wasn't previously owned by one of you guys and
> sorry if I offended you.
That's a wonderful anecdote! I think it would be a delight if the owner
were here!
My mother once bought me a book called "The Marx Brothers Scrapbook" as
a Christmas present. On Christmas Eve, as she was wrapping last minute
gifts and putting things under the tree, she happened to flip it open
and see, ah, a few bits of what she considered to be objectionable
language. (Actually, Groucho and Chico were hilariously profane, and it
showed in this book.)
She looked more. There were more "bad" words. And so on.
So, she slipped into Parental Mode: She got out a Bic ballpoint
pen and, starting at the beginning of the book, blocked out all the
passages she considered objectionable. The book looked like a
declassified national security document when she was done.
When I unwrapped it and looked at it, with my mouth hanging open, she
said, "You better enjoy it. I stayed up all goddamn night until four in
the morning doing that. I used up all the ink in the blue pen and half
the ink in the black one. They had filthy goddamn mouths, those Marx
Brothers!"
I guess you can say I learned about irony at an early age....
--tim