Shortness of Breadth...

On the poetry front, it seems that pride of place for brevity belongs to the author of “Fleas,” a poem often attributed to Ogden Nash but actually written by Strickland Gillilan. (Note: Gillilan did not call it “Fleas”— but rather, "Lines on the Antiquity of Microbes")  and it reads in its entirety: 

LINES ON THE ANTIQUITY OF MICROBES 

by Strickland Gillilan

Adam

Had 'em.

But claim to the concision crown is in dispute and a brief search reveals that another distinguished poet had topped Gillilan when...

Undated poem by Ali entitled King James Brown

Muhammed Ali concluded his  commencement speech to the senior class at Harvard and someone in the audience shouted out “Give us a poem” ... Ali  didn’t hesitate before shouting back:

Me! Whee!

And I'm sure lurking somewhere is a collection of other brief efforts to wrest control of the category for whatever honor that might confer...but rather than troll for those, I'll close the poetry piece of this post with something  considerably more substantial -- it's one of many penned by an old  friend whose eloquence  is matched by his bass playing skills, defense law accomplishments and handball court prowess.  This one resonates all the more for me after having recently spent a week vacationing on the Island of St. Lucia.

Bahamas Vacation: 1985

by Jeremy L. Goldberg ( from Real Men Love Witches: 13 Poems.  c.2000)

In the middle of Nassau lie beautiful lakes

Visible through the wrecks lining the broken road.

Tourists glut their part of town; the rich, behind barbed

Wire, reside near the refinery.  Baha-

Mians are barred from the casinos, and brilliant

Sun, in any month, can burn a fair -skinned basker.

(Again, please pardon the formatting sloppiness, The Blogspot Despots are at it again, "improving" the system to insure continued blogger pain and suffering) 

Theodor Geisel used the name Dr. Seuss not only for his children’s books, which began with the 1937 classic, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, but also for the lesser-known, but just as striking, editorial cartoon work he did during WWII years in the progressive magazine PM and then for the War Production Board. 

An oft recurring topic with Geisel

Continuing my journey down the Jewish/Israel/Arab history trail ...I  came across this-- taken during Anwar Sadat's historic visit (At Begin's invitation) to Israel in 1977.  Call me paranoid, but isn't Sadat's tie pattern a series of linked Swastikas? 

If you're having trouble seeing it on whatever  screen you're now viewing, here it is again...

Of course, I'm not the first to notice, and there are more than a few discussions online that toss this item around with typical internet ignorance. But nothing seems to help resolve the issue of whether this was an entirely innocent and unintentional coincidence or a blatant and malicious act of disrespect and passive aggression. From what I gleaned from The Prime Ministers, by author and longtime advisor to multiple PMs, Yehuda Avner, Sadat was viewed as sincere in his desire to make peace, and apparently was held in high esteem by Menachem Begin.  So the mystery deepens. Could it really have escaped all notice at the time?  Seems improbable.  But there it is in black and white and it appears that anyone who knows anything isn't saying. 

The Zen of Screwball...

The Swedish Movie Poster:
 Is he about to hit her with the dog?

Couldn't sleep, so stayed up late watching The Awful Truth.  1937. Cary Grant, Irene Dunne with Leo McCarey at the helm and Vina Delmar's adapted screenplay.  I'd seen it before but too long ago to remember much.  It's a classic and deservedly so--but what I didn't recall was the sly wit lurking within the seemingly glib dialogue.  Like Preston Sturges at his best, the banter is so quick and tossed away with such abandon that it's easy to miss the serious craft behind it.   Towards the end it stalls a bit, but there's this exchange which caught me so off-guard that I went online to find a transcription.  The set-up is that Grant and Dunne are a married couple who become estranged early in the picture and then after many a farcical series of flirtations and romantic adventures with others intended solely for the purpose of inflicting embarrassment and humiliation upon each other -- they're  finally reconciled with new found appreciation and perspective.  It's a classic screwball plot that culminates with this:

Dunne: “Things are just the same as they ever were, only you’re just the same, too, so I guess things will never be the same again. . . . You’re all confused, aren’t you?”

Grant: “Uh-huh. Aren’t you?”

Dunne: “No.”

Grant: “Well you should be, because you’re wrong about things being different because they’re not the same. Things are different, except in a different way. You’re still the same, only I’ve been a fool. Well, I’m not now. So, as long as I’m different, don’t you think things could be the same again? Only a little different.”

Hey Sam Beckett...put that in your pipe and smoke it!