View all notes
—I mean like what’s all this in the oven.
—Oh that’s mail yes, I put Mister . . .
—Well like take it out so we can make this pizza okay?
—Yes but, no but the oven doesn’t work, they turned off the . . .
—Like what do you mean it doesn’t work, I mean when I went out you said you use the oven to . . .
—No I was going to say the gas is turned off so I just use it to keep Mister Grynszpan’s mail separate I, I didn’t know you meant a frozen pizza why did you . . .
—Look man I get a frozen pizza so I can slip a couple of records in, okay? So like now what are we going to . . .
—I don’t know I, I mean there’s no place here to play them but if you . . .
lol
—Come off it man, I mean like you’re this telephone man okay? Like how am I supposed to know where you install a telephone, I mean just install it like they taught you how to install a telephone in telephone man school okay? And she got a foot up on the side of the tub to dry a knee as he turned to hurry a box through the door and knelt beside the film cans opposite her to tear it open.—Man like wait a minute, she paused on a dry knee,—I mean like that’s supposed to be a telephone?
—Just opening the mail, Mister Bast here got us a . . .
—Stop, stop it look it’s slicing most of it in half . . .
—Must be some God damned little adjustment here . . .
—Bast pull the plug will you? before he loses a finger? Damn it Jack look at this mess, what do you . . .
—Just have to match them up God damn it what do you think technology is for, have to open them all by hand? Just match bottoms to tops, here, anybody got a top half from the Internal Revenue Service? Tell you one thing from the bottom half here somebody’s in one hell of a mess . . .
—Oh, then would, would you like to buy some greeting cards then?
—Tom got a boy here selling greeting cards, what grade are you in.
—Six M, Mrs Manzinel . . .
—Tom boy out here working his way through six N selling greeting cards. What’s the greetings.
—Well see these are all occasion cards, like for all different occasions they’re all . . .
—All occasion cards Tom, got them for all different occasions.
—Like birthday, anniversary, you know all these different occasions like . . .
—Got a friend jumped out a window, got a card for that?
—Well gee I, maybe get well . . .
—Can’t get well, went home and hung himself got a card for that?
—Well gee I, I don’t think so but maybe you could . . .
—Got a woman on alimony sleeping with a book salesman hell of an occasion, got a card for that?
—Well gee I, like here’s sympathy maybe you could . . .
—Jack God damn it what are you, hello Chris what is it.
—Oh hi Mister Eigen I, I was just selling these greeting cards . . .
—Says they’re for all occasions Tom but every God damned occasion I can think of is . . .
—Well damn it I, don’t you think I . . . he came down against the chair drawn up to the typewriter,—writer who can’t even find a pencil, God damn instinct for the jugular told me the reason I don’t finish it I’m afraid to compete with myself, terrible slowness of things in a dream . . . and he tore the page from the typewriter.—They wheeled, I fired, and they were gone, but there on the ground with a broken damn it Jack do you know how many times I’ve written that? rewritten that? Marries a writer like a politician wants him to win, she thinks you’re in some God damn competition running for something, one God damn person take your doubts to lay them in her lap and she . . .
—Just told you Tom worst God damned thing you can do, bunch of God damned open wounds lay them in her lap what the hell do you expect. First time she has to get the God damned knives out she can’t resist them, laid them all out for her she knows right where they are can’t resist them, in here think you’re writing a play characters come out of your typewriter what the hell you expect them to look like all those God damned knives going on around you, bunch of God damned arms wandering around bereft of shoulders right out of Empedocles hell do you expect. God damned knives going around she’s standing at the sink in the kitchen man down there no hands no ears no God damned face drinks pints easier to hold between his wrist stumps, she’s standing at the sink has to get the God damned knives out knows right where they go what the hell do you expect . . .
this is sad
—Damn it Beaton haven’t got time to go through this mess, this the people we’re talking about?
—One of them yes sir, this appeared in an upstate newspaper during their takeover of an ailing textile firm called Eagle . . .
—Couple of blacks, are they?
—No I think not sir that, I believe that’s simply the poor quality of the photocopy, the one on the left there, a Mister . . .
lmao
[...] You see I still have confidence in you sir, or should I say in the artist who dwells within you, the artist who disdains such mundane details as selecting a fresh shirt in the morning, who steps forth into the workaday world the rest of us inhabit indifferent to the glances he draws because his shoes fail to match, why? Because his mind has been elsewhere, his inner ear tuned to the sonorous tones of horn and kettledrum, tones it is his sacred duty to let us hear with him. I have the confidence he will and you must too sir [...]
lol
[...] No look Hopper look I can’t always have him calling me like if they’re still mad about these here looms we’re selling off at South America see I just gave this son of this union leader up there Shorter I just gave him this Wonder beer distributorship for that whole territory and this Bunky I put him in charge of these rebates on all their returns see because if we have to keep them in business to keep this here whole tax loss carry . . . No see I just wanted to know with this big shipment of fiber they got in if we should just like dump it and take the write-off or like ship it to Hong Kong or someplace to make sweaters or something and import them back see if we did that would we still get to keep this whole tax loss carryforward from . . . what? No no wait just wait a second wait . . . The taps on the glass were repeated and the door clattered open a hand’s breadth,—gee I’m sorry Mrs Joubert just a second I . . .
[...] I mean there’s so much stuff . . . he got the half step ahead,—like did you ever think Mrs Joubert everything you see someplace there’s this millionaire for it?
—Is that all you think about!
—Sure I mean look back there . . . he’d blocked the door by way of opening it for her with his back against it, bringing the wind in,—like right now someplace there’s this water fountain millionaire and this locker millionaire and this here lightbulb one I mean like even the lightbulb there’s this glass millionaire and this one off where you screw the, oh wait wait a second . . . Down that bright empty corridor the telephone rang in the booth,—could you just wait up for me a second Mrs Joubert . . .? But she reached past him to push the door leaving him off balance there a foot in each direction where the wind brought in a wrapper from a Three Musketeers candy bar—see I just, just, okay wait a second I’m coming . . . and he ran up against her on the steps.
—Well who is he what’s he doing here and while you’re over there Virginia look in the box under that blue chaise longue, the file marked Health Package Mister Brisboy here will want a look at it for the cemetery tie-in that reminds me Brisboy you’ve got an apology coming, when the press boys called about your Wagner Funeral Homes chain joining up with the J R Corp Family of Companies here I was busy on these Indians and put Virginia there on the phone with some notes of mine where I’d abbreviated funeral fun, gave them the idea we’d picked up a string of massage parlors to work into this whole nursing home to cemetery package, really hit the fan if we don’t clear it up I thought we could put you onto them later for a statement got somebody working on it now Beamish I know she’s been with the Boss since he got started, the only reason I kept her on when he closed down the midtown office and sent her along I thought she had an inside look at operations maybe you can talk Mister Bast into using her at uptown headquarters I couldn’t, look at that beam she fills half the room when she stoops over in that print dress takes off her earring every time she answers the phone and then stops to put it back on see what I mean Beamish, I’ve got to get a gal in here who can see what it’s like Mister Brisboy trying to keep score with what is it now Virginia?