Subject: Re: Hank Greenberg
From: Paul Kennedy (kennedyp@toronto.cbc.ca)
Date: Fri Oct 06 2000 - 11:55:21 GMT
>
>ObSal: There are no houses that say "J.D. Salinger lived here,"
>either. Quite a contrast to walking in Paris, where notable literary
>people are memorialized widely (though not, to my knowledge, Ernest
>Hemingway -- I've looked hard to find a single plaque there
>commemorating one of his homes or haunts, and failed to locate any).
>
In my humble experience, London is the city with the best literary plaques
in the whole world. I've wasted entire evenings--virtually from dusk to
dawn--wandering aimlessly through those 'charted streets', reading the blue
plaques, and wondering what they put in the water to nourish so many
geniuses. A feminist friend (yeah, Will, even I have feminist friends--and
I guess that you're one of them) once lived at Chalk Farm, next door to the
house where Sylvia Plath finally succeeded in figuring out how to turn the
oven on. There was no plaque. When my friend inquired in all the proper
places, she was told it wasn't likely that a plaque would happen while Ted
Hughes was poet laureate. When she then expressed her righteous indignation,
she was sent to an office where it was explained to her that NO ONE--not
even the possibly compromising ex-wife of a poet laureate--could be
considered for a plaque unless they'd been dead for fifty years.
On the other hand, I sort of like the way New York is nonchalant about its
famous former residents. I wouldn't mind knowing where Jerry lived, and
might even try to make a pilgrimmage when next I'm there. Instead of a
plaque, though, I'd like to hear a glockenspiel endlessly playing "Comin'
Thru the Rye" at the carousel in Central Park. Or if there MUST be a
plaque, why not one suggesting Frozen Daiquiris (since no one, not even
Holden, should ever order scotch and soda!) at Ernie's Bar?
Cheers,
Paul
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