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Sunday, March 11, 2018

The Writer's Life 3/11 - Amazing Facts & More

I went list hunting this morning and found an article, 135 Amazing Facts, by Alvin Ward at mentalfloss.com. Since this blog has literary pretensions, I plucked out those facts related to writing, editing them slightly:
In 1974 the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis published a paper titled The Unsuccessful Self-Treatment of a Case of Writer's Block. It contained zero words.
Tsundoku is the act of acquiring books and not reading them.
A teacher wrote the following on one of Roald Dahl's report card: "I have never met anybody who so persistently writes words meaning the exact opposite of what is intended."
After It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown aired, Charles Schulz was overwhelmed with candy shipments from kids concerned about Charlie, who got rocks instead of treats in his Halloween sack.
Truman Capote claimed he was the only person who'd met all four of these men: John F. Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald and Sirhan Sirhan.
Dr. Seuss said he expected to spend "a week or so" writing The Cat in the Hat. It took a year and a half.
Before the Nazis invaded Paris, H.A. and Margret Rey fled on bicycles - carrying the manuscript for Curious George.
The Library of Congress regularly receives requests for books that don't exist. The most common is the President's Book of Secrets, from the 2007 movie National Treasure: Book of Secrets.
Carly Simon's dad is the Simon of Simon and Schuster. He co-founded the company.
Since founding the Imagination Library in 1995, Dolly Parton has donated 100 million books to children.
Before he wrote Goosebumps, R.L. Stine wrote jokes for Bazooka Joe wrappers. Here's one. I have no idea if Stine wrote the joke:
What a beautiful day. My thanks to the elderly woman who bought the following books for her niece,
an avid reader: The Vampire Diaries: The Return: Nightfall by L. J. Smith, The Girl Who KnewToo
Much by Amanda Quick, a horror short story anthology, three paperbacks by Nora Roberts, and an obscure romance novel. She arrived a few minutes before closing time, the session's only buyer. For a change it was easy to ward off frustration. Just 30 yards away, at the corner of 5th Av. & 9th St., was a reminder how far down in importance selling books is. I saw people gather there, some making the sign of the cross. Earlier in the week, the intersection was the scene of a terrible accident. Neighbors have built a shrine:


Sorry about the appearance of the last paragraph. I have no idea how I did that and it resisted all efforts at correction.

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