Properties
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- 3459
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T03:41:20.744Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
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- 3412
- text
- Columbia now, but he lived on 65th Street and all, and I knew he'd be home. When I got
him on the phone, he said he couldn't make it for dinner but that he'd meet me for a drink
at ten o'clock at the Wicker Bar, on 54th. I think he was pretty surprised to hear from me.
I once called him a fat-assed phony.
I had quite a bit of time to kill till ten o'clock, so what I did, I went to the movies
at Radio City. It was probably the worst thing I could've done, but it was near, and I
couldn't think of anything else.
I came in when the goddam stage show was on. The Rockettes were kicking their
heads off, the way they do when they're all in line with their arms around each other's
waist. The audience applauded like mad, and some guy behind me kept saying to his
wife, "You know what that is? That's precision." He killed me. Then, after the Rockettes,
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a guy came out in a tuxedo and roller skates on, and started skating under a bunch of little
tables, and telling jokes while he did it. He was a very good skater and all, but I couldn't
enjoy it much because I kept picturing him practicing to be a guy that roller-skates on the
stage. It seemed so stupid. I guess I just wasn't in the right mood. Then, after him, they
had this Christmas thing they have at Radio City every year. All these angels start coming
out of the boxes and everywhere, guys carrying crucifixes and stuff all over the place,
and the whole bunch of them--thousands of them--singing "Come All Ye Faithful!" like
mad. Big deal. It's supposed to be religious as hell, I know, and very pretty and all, but I
can't see anything religious or pretty, for God's sake, about a bunch of actors carrying
crucifixes all over the stage. When they were all finished and started going out the boxes
again, you could tell they could hardly wait to get a cigarette or something. I saw it with
old Sally Hayes the year before, and she kept saying how beautiful it was, the costumes
and all. I said old Jesus probably would've puked if He could see it--all those fancy
costumes and all. Sally said I was a sacrilegious atheist. I probably am. The thing Jesus
really would've liked would be the guy that plays the kettle drums in the orchestra. I've
watched that guy since I was about eight years old. My brother Allie and I, if we were
with our parents and all, we used to move our seats and go way down so we could watch
him. He's the best drummer I ever saw. He only gets a chance to bang them a couple of
times during a whole piece, but he never looks bored when he isn't doing it. Then when
he does bang them, he does it so nice and sweet, with this nervous expression on his face.
One time when we went to Washington with my father, Allie sent him a postcard, but I'll
bet he never got it. We weren't too sure how to address it.
After the Christmas thing was over, the goddam picture started. It was so putrid I
couldn't take my eyes off it. It was about this English guy, Alec something, that was in
the war and loses his memory in the hospital and all. He comes out of the hospital
carrying a cane and limping all over the place, all over London, not knowing who the hell
he is. He's really a duke, but he doesn't know it. Then he meets this nice, homey, sincere
girl getting on a bus. Her goddam hat blows off and he catches it, and then they go
upstairs and sit down and start talking about Charles Dickens. He's both their favorite
author and all. He's carrying this copy of Oliver Twist and so's she. I could've puked.
Anyway, they fell in love right away, on account of they're both so nuts about Charles
Dickens and all, and he helps her run her publishing business. She's a publisher, the girl.
Only, she's not doing so hot, because her brother's a drunkard and he spends all their
dough. He's a very bitter guy, the brother, because he was a doctor in the war and now he
can't operate any more because his nerves are shot, so he boozes all the time, but he's
- title
- Chunk 2