Properties
- end_line
- 3452
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-27T17:17:08.781Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 3408
- text
- 3263 about three years older than I was, and I didn't like him too much, but he was one of these
3264 very intellectual guys-- he had the highest I.Q. of any boy at Whooton--and I thought he
3265 might want to have dinner with me somewhere and have a slightly intellectual
3266 conversation. He was very enlightening sometimes. So I gave him a buzz. He went to
3267 Columbia now, but he lived on 65th Street and all, and I knew he'd be home. When I got
3268 him on the phone, he said he couldn't make it for dinner but that he'd meet me for a drink
3269 at ten o'clock at the Wicker Bar, on 54th. I think he was pretty surprised to hear from me.
3270 I once called him a fat-assed phony.
3271 I had quite a bit of time to kill till ten o'clock, so what I did, I went to the movies
3272 at Radio City. It was probably the worst thing I could've done, but it was near, and I
3273 couldn't think of anything else.
3274 I came in when the goddam stage show was on. The Rockettes were kicking their
3275 heads off, the way they do when they're all in line with their arms around each other's
3276 waist. The audience applauded like mad, and some guy behind me kept saying to his
3277 wife, "You know what that is? That's precision." He killed me. Then, after the Rockettes,
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3278 a guy came out in a tuxedo and roller skates on, and started skating under a bunch of little
3279 tables, and telling jokes while he did it. He was a very good skater and all, but I couldn't
3280 enjoy it much because I kept picturing him practicing to be a guy that roller-skates on the
3281 stage. It seemed so stupid. I guess I just wasn't in the right mood. Then, after him, they
3282 had this Christmas thing they have at Radio City every year. All these angels start coming
3283 out of the boxes and everywhere, guys carrying crucifixes and stuff all over the place,
3284 and the whole bunch of them--thousands of them--singing "Come All Ye Faithful!" like
3285 mad. Big deal. It's supposed to be religious as hell, I know, and very pretty and all, but I
3286 can't see anything religious or pretty, for God's sake, about a bunch of actors carrying
3287 crucifixes all over the stage. When they were all finished and started going out the boxes
3288 again, you could tell they could hardly wait to get a cigarette or something. I saw it with
3289 old Sally Hayes the year before, and she kept saying how beautiful it was, the costumes
3290 and all. I said old Jesus probably would've puked if He could see it--all those fancy
3291 costumes and all. Sally said I was a sacrilegious atheist. I probably am. The thing Jesus
3292 really would've liked would be the guy that plays the kettle drums in the orchestra. I've
3293 watched that guy since I was about eight years old. My brother Allie and I, if we were
3294 with our parents and all, we used to move our seats and go way down so we could watch
3295 him. He's the best drummer I ever saw. He only gets a chance to bang them a couple of
3296 times during a whole piece, but he never looks bored when he isn't doing it. Then when
3297 he does bang them, he does it so nice and sweet, with this nervous expression on his face.
3298 One time when we went to Washington with my father, Allie sent him a postcard, but I'll
3299 bet he never got it. We weren't too sure how to address it.
3300 After the Christmas thing was over, the goddam picture started. It was so putrid I
3301 couldn't take my eyes off it. It was about this English guy, Alec something, that was in
3302 the war and loses his memory in the hospital and all. He comes out of the hospital
3303 carrying a cane and limping all over the place, all over London, not knowing who the hell
3304 he is. He's really a duke, but he doesn't know it. Then he meets this nice, homey, sincere
3305 girl getting on a bus. Her goddam hat blows off and he catches it, and then they go
- title
- Chunk 2