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Wilfrid

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Posts posted by Wilfrid

  1. Nice photo. I don't have a clear memory of Wuthering Heights although I've had matching copies of it and Jane Eyre since I was a kid. Since I do clearly remember Jane Eyre, it's possible I gave up on Emily.

    By coincidence, I picked up an early poetry collection by Anne Carson last week. It contans "The Glass Essay," a poem that comments extensively on Emily Bronte's poetry. That led me to take a look in the library and I had no idea she had written so much.

    Done with Andreyev, moving on to Artsybashev -- contemporaries, both Russian, close together on my shelf, but very different. Sanin may have serious philosophical intentions, but it reads as a challenge to all good taste of the time. Early Russian punk.

  2. You see, you're imagining them to be unsubtle catastrophes with weird flavors. I can just tell you they're not. They're very subtle and interesting. But nobody is ordering you to go try them.

    • Like 1
  3. 2 hours ago, MitchW said:

    Sorry, but those drinks sound disgusting.

    And why, oh why, have we gotten to this point?

    I think you need to try them. They certainly weren't disgusting.

  4. Unusual place. I have been aware of it for a while and blithely assumed the name meant a kind of singles bar. Completely wrong; apparently it refers to a Singaporean/English idiom which, despite visiting Singapore twice, rings no bells with me.

    In fact, it's an ambitious cocktail bar, reminding me of Martinys, but it's tiny. Almost all seating is upstairs, a few booths and some bar stools. That means make a reservation, show up on time and be prepared to close out when the next reservation is due (we had nearly two hours which surprised me).

    It really is about the house cocktails; not much point coming here and ordering your regular. I ordered two takes on a martini; didn't take notes but I know the second one came with a salted egg vermouth and a large olive in a floating eggshell. My friend's second cocktail, which she deemed strong, was garnished with a rice crispy cube. It's that kind of place, but everything was good ($22-$26).

    There's a short menu of share plates. The duck tongues could have served four people.

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  5. Codex Books (Bowery end of Bleecker) continues to surprise me. It's on my circuit to browse once every few weeks but I rarely have cause to buy. Last year, though, I found a lovely first US edition of Morante's Aracoeli.

    Today, I couldn't believe my eyes. In perfect condition (absent dust jacket) US first edition of Patrick Hamilton's Twopence Colored (1928), long out of print. I never expected that. (I read a library edition years ago, probably from the London Library when I lived there.)

    If Hamilton sounds familiar, his most successful plays became huge movies, Gaslight and Rope. Yes, "gaslighting" is his unanticipated legacy.

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    • Like 1
  6. Matt Schneier reviews it in New York this week, also saying it's always full but confirming that the restaurant has been asking critics not to review it. Nice to have that luxury.

    His tip is to get in the walk-in line at 5, half an hour before it opens.

    I wouldn't care but he also raves about the black pudding -- while adding that it's not always on the menu.

    Hartbreak's Snack Bar.

  7. Not far from Eel Bar. I like the sound of the blood pudding despite that description. But then I read tiny room, packed since it opened, long line for walk-ins... They don't take reservations for 1 and there is nothing on Resy for 2.

    :shrug:

  8. Into Andreyev now, reading some (not all) of his stories. He had a huge impact on me in my teens/twenties, to the extent that I tried writing his kind of tales. In a typical case, the plot is secondary to the creation of a mood that might be described as absolute and unredeemable despair. I went through a phase with melancholy authors — Dowson and the Thomson of "The City of Dreadful Night" are others. I think I should fit a couple of Dowson short stories in.

  9. Nice story about the theft of the Great Jones Cafe Elvis bust. I did not know about that.

    I do recall the case (not mentioned here) of the cow statue stolen from The Sunburnt Cow on Avenue C.

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