The Writer's Life 10/14 - Thunder

In a fun article in today's NY Post, Reed Tucker touts a new book on the origin of popular phrases: Watch Your Tongue: What Our Everyday Sayings and Idioms Figuratively Mean by Mark Abley. Of the eight examples he highlights in the piece, the following is my favorite: In 1709 London playwright John Dennis came up with an innovative way to mimic thunder in his production Appius and Virginia. The show folded quickly. The author was later startled to find his technique used in a production of Macbeth. Allegedly, he said: “Damn them. They will not let my play run, but they steal my thunder.” (Edited by yours truly.)

A Post blurb about the results of a poll shows that most Americans don't share the paranoia of many environmental zealots. 84% believe the air quality is good. 86% believe the same about water. I don't doubt that drinking water is safe. I'm more concerned about what it picks up in the pipes, many of them decades old, that deliver it. That's why I don't drink from the tap, although I wash dishes and rinse my mouth with it - after letting it run a while.

I took the show to Park Slope today and the results were disappointing, not clearing nearly enough room for this week's expected donations. My thanks to the young man who bought three pictorials on the work of specific photographers. One was Alfred Kane, who often shot celebrities. He passed away in 1995 at 69. Here's one of his pics:

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