Carol Presents James Thurber

Jacquie's Email 

Feb 3 Hooray! It's only been a few days, and yet we get to meet again this Wednesday, February 3rd at 1pm for Carol's presentation on James Thurber! Good luck with the snow! Jacquie

Barbara's Minutes 

Poketa, poketa, poketa went the keys of the computer. The minutes seemed to be coming smoothly, when suddenly QUEEP, QUEEP—coreopsis was setting in, and only the proud and disdainful writer could stop it. “To hell with the handkerchief, give me a fountain pen!” she cried, inscrutable to the last.

Or something not remotely like that. What the writer of these minutes should be noting is that it was stole weather, as Joanna Riesman’s grandmother would have said, for the February 3, 2021, meeting of the Literature Club, and during our chat time members recounted their recent adventures in the snow. Connie Stewart’s tale of her car so stuck in a snowdrift in her driveway that even the rescuers from AAA could not pull it out was the most dramatic. After President Fran Greenberg rang the business meeting to order, the minutes were accepted as read and the treasury reported at its customary $181.52. A nominating committee consisting of Carla Potash, Connie Stewart, and Joanna Riesman was formed to present a slate of candidates for the offices of two secretaries and a treasurer, to be voted on at the March 10 Annual Meeting. Connie has arranged for the children’s science book Bat Count to be donated to the Hastings Library in memory of Susan Korsten. Carol Barkin will follow up on a book for the library in memory of May Kanfer, and Jacquie Weitzman will continue her discussions with librarian Debbie Quinn on our donation of $125. At the end of our session, we voted to accept Fran’s smaller version of a Literature Club book plate to go in donated books.

Presenter Carol Barkin interwove the life and work of her author, James Thurber, noting how often in his stories he rang changes on the theme of the dominating wife and the henpecked husband. As sources, she pointed us to Thurber’s mother, the practical joker Mame; Thurber’s socially ambitious first wife; and his second wife, who ran every aspect of his life while also editing the magazines Flying Aces and Sky Birds. Her two expert topics were aircraft and machine guns. Carol also stressed the unhappy effects of a childhood accident in which Thurber lost his left eye, and the positive and nurturing creative influence of The New Yorker and its founding editor Harold Ross and writer E.B. White, on both Thurber’s life and work.

Among the stories we read and laughed our way through were “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” and “The Macbeth Murder Mystery.”

Respectfully submitted, Barbara Morrow, Recording Secretary

Joanna Presents Alan Bennett

Jacquie's Emails 

Dec 29 ,2020 Hello Ladies! A funny thing happened on the way to scheduling Joanna's presentation for this Lit Club season - it was set for January 20th, which is, as we all have tattooed on our hearts, Inauguration Day. So, to spread out the special events during this long pandemic season, we will be changing Joanna's presentation on Alan Bennett to January 27th. We hope this will work with everyone's schedules. Wishing you all a New Year full of laughter (and maybe a little schadenfreude??!!!) Jacquie

Jan 24, 2021 Greeting Literary Ladies! What a collection of Wednesdays we have had this January - starting with January 6th, as Barbara was delighting us with Shakespeare while the mob was attacking the capital and our democratic institutions, to last Wednesday, with the ecstatic release of grown-ups and competents taking back our capital and democratic institutions, with poetry and music and big words used correctly and with thought and feeling, and the best fireworks display I have ever seen! I for one am so glad Joanna was willing to move her presentation to this Wednesday, as I was unable to tear myself away from my television set, wearing pearls and my stars and stripes scarf, rejoicing in all that is now seemingly possible once again.

To stick with the literary, my sister Robin posted this image on her Facebook page entitled, "This small Fancy Nancy seeing what she can be." For those who are unfamiliar with the book series, this little girl is wearing a costume from Disney's Fancy Nancy collection, sold at Target.

And now we have Joanna's presentation to look forward to this Wednesday, January 27th at 1pm, when she will be delighting us with Uncommon Writer: Alan Bennett. Joanna has requested that I include the following video Maggie Smith in Alan Bennett's Bed Among the Lentils to whet your appetite for her presentation. Enjoy! Until Wednesday! Jacquie

Barbara's Minutes

Last night I should have been writing the minutes for our January 27 Literature Club meeting, but instead I could not stop watching on YouTube a performance of Beyond the Fringe at a theater in London’s West End in the 1960s. Beyond the Fringe was the creation of four young and brilliant performers from Oxford, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Jonathan Miller, and Alan Bennett, the subject of Joanna Riesman’s presentation. I first became aware of Alan Bennett in 1965, when I was in London and saw the show. Last night I reveled in Dudley Moore accompanying himself on the piano as he sang Die Flabbergast, Peter Cook, as a Scotland yard inspector, who assures his interviewer that a train robbery does not mean a train has been stolen, Jonathan Miller as a breezy Vicar who asks to be called Dick as he tries to bring young people back to the church, and Alan Bennett, in his plumiest BBC voice, talking about T.E. Lawrence, the Man and the Myth.

But to get on with the writing of the minutes. We had a lively chat period, in which we learned that Fran Lebowitz is Jacquie Weitzman’s first cousin and spiced up family parties by bringing jazz greats. Christine Lehner's life now revolves around an adorable puppy, while Louisa Stephens delights in StoryWorth, an online program which helps users collect family stories and put them in book form. Linda Tucker is about to read American literature with her grandson at Yale. Sharon DeLevie is leaving soon for a trip to Florida with a stack of books, among them The Mothers and Deacon King Kong.  At our business meeting the minutes were accepted as read and the treasury remained at $181.52. Jacquie will continue her talk with Hastings Librarian Debbie Quinn about the Literature Club donation of $125 for books—or ebooks—of literary merit. Fran showed her floral Literature Club bookplate design, but a decision was deferred, since some members would like a design that identifies Hastings.

Joanna offered a wide-ranging view of Alan Bennett’s life and work, drawing from his memoirs, plays, and books, and referencing films, TV monologues, BBC radio plays, and more. We read passages from his memoir Untold Stories, which, as Joanna noted, revealed his talent for observing the small acts that describe a character. Bennett’s ability to describe the unhappiness or regret of women was informed by his experience of his mother’s depression. We read the funny and heartbreaking play A Woman of Letters, then turned to a lighter work, The Uncommon Reader, to conclude our exploration, under Joanna’s guidance, of this inimitable writer.

Respectfully submitted, Barbara Morrow, Recording Secretary

Barbara Presents Shakespeare's Fools

Jacquie's Email 

Hello Literary Ladies!!! As we head into the promise of 2021, this is a reminder that we will be meeting this Wednesday, January 6th at 1pm on Zoom for Barbara's Presentation on Shakespeare's Fools. Barbara will be sharing her texts on the screen during her presentation and assigning parts at that time, but if you would prefer to receive a copy of her (lengthy) texts ahead of time to print out, please let her know and she will send them to you. I hope you were all able to ring in the New Year with a little laughter! Jacquie

P.S. And since we all have Georgia on our minds, here's a little musical interlude to get us through Tuesday. 

P.P.S. And as Barbara reminded me, if you want to brush up on your Shakespeare with the help of another Brit with a way with words, Cole Porter, here you go!

Barbara's Minutes 

All the members of the Literature Club, including our newest member, Sharon DeLevie, were in their Zoom boxes for the first meeting of the new year. Joanna Riesman told us her sister took umbrage at receiving a book called Diary of a Provincial Lady as a gift, but was soon delighting in Delafield’s tale. How the holidays were different formed one theme of many of our stories during our chat time. Since we were not entertaining, there were few meals to prepare, which meant there was more time to relax, even take naps. Fortunately, most of us were able to see our families. There was also time to read. Among the books recommended were novels such as Lydia Millet’s A Children’s Bible and Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library, George Saunders’s story Fox 8,,the nonfiction works Bill Buford’s Dirt and Kerri Arsenault’s Mill Town, and Obama’s memoir, A Promised Land.

At the business meeting led by President Fran Greenberg, the minutes were accepted as read and the treasury remained at $181.52. Jacquie Weitzman and Connie Stewart said they will continue their talks with Hastings Librarian Debbie Quinn about Literature Club donations. Fran will design an book plate to be used in all books given to the library from the Literature Club.

For her talk on Shakespeare’s fools, Barbara Morrow chose the paradoxical punster Touchstone, master of court manners and morals, from Shakespeare’s romantic comedy As You Like It. She also chose Sir John Falstaff, with his fierce, subversive intelligence and carnivalesque exuberance, from the history play, King Henry IV Part 1.

Although we are not quite ready to tread the boards of the Globe Theater, Literature Club members did a very creditable job of reading three scenes from each of the plays.

Just as it was approaching 3 o’clock, a member announced that something terrible was happening at the US Capitol. We all clicked out of the meeting to learn of insurrection in Washington, DC.

Respectfully submitted, Barbara Morrow, Recording Secretary

Social Distancing, Masks, Quarantines...Continued

Here we are on Zoom, December 9, 2020, hearing Diana talk about Bailey White.

Top, left to right: Linda, Fran, Louisa, Sharon

2nd row: Laura, Lori, Mary, Joanna

3rd row: Carol, Barbara, Gita, Diana

Bottom: Christine, Jacquie

Diana Presents Bailey White

Jacquie's Email 

 

Jan 9, 2021 Hello Literary Ladies! How truly apt this cartoon is will become more apparent this Wednesday at 1pm when Diana presents on Baily White in her own dulcet tones. Diana will be sharing her screen for readings, so no need to let her know if you will be attending, but if you are unable to join us, please let Fran know so that she can start the meeting once we are all assembled. Until Wednesday! Jacquie

Barbara's Minutes

After our Zoom chat that included Christine Lehner’s challenges devising a unicorn horn to fasten to a tiger’s head for her granddaughter, and a recommendation for dark chocolate to alleviate depression, members of the Literature Club settled in for the minutes (accepted as read), the treasurer’s report ($181.52), and to discuss some library business. We voted to contribute $125 to the Hastings Library. Jacquie Weitzman volunteered to speak with librarian Debbie Quinn both about a book to be given in memory of May Kanfer (perhaps a children’s book of fables or fairy tales), and books, ebooks or other, that the library might like to add to its collection with our $125 gift.

Presenter Diana Jaeger began by commenting that she read her author, Bailey White, last summer when she was down in Mississippi – her Mama had a couple of Bailey White books from the library. They would constantly laugh out loud while reading. Diana noted that Bailey White is a Southern writer who does a very good job of capturing some of the eccentric characters who live in rural parts of the South; at the same time, she captures universal themes.

She may be best known as a commentator on NPR’s “All Things Considered.” She read one of her short stories on NPR every Thanksgiving for 20 years: from 1991 – 2011. Bailey White ended up getting more mail from listeners than any other NPR commentator. Most of the mail came from Southerners who said she reminded them of their Grandma. And her voice does sound old on the radio:

"Something about a microphone makes me sound 93 years old," she wrote in an NPR publication. “I get nervous when a microphone is aimed at me. My vocal cords clamp up, my breath comes in gasps and spit rattles behind my molars. When I meet NPR listeners face to face, they fall back, drop their mouths open with horror, and shriek, 'You're not old and wise!'''

Among the stories we read aloud and laughed over were “What Would They Say in Birmingham?” (one of White’s Thanksgiving stories from the collection Nothing With Strings) and stories from Mama Makes Up Her Mind.

Respectfully submitted, Barbara Morrow, Recording Secretary

Lori Presents Political Satire

Jacquie's Email Notice 

Nov 15: Hello Literary Ladies! How prescient of Lori to choose such a relevant topic for her upcoming presentation: Political Satire: Catch-22, Brave New World, and Slaughterhouse 5. We will be meeting this Wednesday, November 18th at 1pm on Zoom. Lori will be sharing the readings on the screen, so no need to let her know if you will be attending. Until then, enjoy the GOOD news! Jacquie

Barbara's Minutes 

Before Fran Greenberg rang us to order with her president’s bell, Literature Club members on Zoom on November 18 chatted eagerly of their relief at Biden’s election, recommended books, among them John Berger’s To the Wedding and Alex Ross’s Wagnerism, and shared personal news. We welcomed as guest Sharon DeLevie, who later helped us out of a technical glitch. At our business meeting Jacquie Weitzman’s insightful minutes were accepted as read, and the treasury reported at $181.52. We asked Connie Stewart to choose a book from her list of science books for kids to give to the Hastings Library in memory of Susan Korsten, and we deferred to a later meeting choosing a book in memory of May Kanfer. We also need to decide on an amount to contribute to the Hastings Library.

In her sweeping presentation on political satire, Lori Walsh ranged from influential cartoons by Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Nash to Stephen Colbert’s eerily prescient 2012 book America Again: Re-becoming the Greatness We Never Weren’t and Christopher Buckley’s 1995 novel The White House Mess, and then moved on to classics of the genre like Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 and Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse 5.

Lori defined political satire as a critique of social conditions that makes us laugh.  Its main ingredients are ridicule, sarcasm, and exaggeration. The Onion has reported that this is why it’s been hard to satirize Trump – how do you exaggerate what is already far beyond norms? A lot of what has happened over the past four years has been very unfunny, yet humor has thrived.  Shows like “Saturday Night Live,” Steven Colbert, “The Daily Show,” “Full Frontal,” among many others, as well as comedians like Randy Rainbow and Sarah Cooper have helped us to laugh about things while we simultaneously cry, protest, and shout with rage.

Lori commented that back in 1961, Catch-22 tried to warn us about the dangers of unchallenged authority and the tendency of government bureaucracy to obscure the reality right in front of us.  In the 90s and early 2000s, comedy shows like “The Daily Show” and “Colbert Report” warned us about the increasingly partisan Fox News and the more and more extreme views of the conservative movement.  And here we are in 2020, after four years of a president who makes Stephen Colbert’s conservative caricature look––reasonable and who is asking us not to see the reality right in front of our eyes. It hurts, but we might as well laugh. After all, humor is one of our best weapons in the fight for self-preservation.

Respectfully submitted, Barbara Morrow, Recording secretary

Louisa Presents Screwball Comedies of Hollywood (1934 to 1942)

Jacquie's Email Notice

Dear Literary Ladies: With all the crazy that we've been witnessing over the past weeks since last we met, I think an afternoon of hearing Louisa present to us " The Writing Behind Screwball Comedies" is just the remedy we need! 

So, we will be meeting this Wednesday, October 21st on Zoom at 1pm. Christine will be hosting the Zoom, so expect to receive the link from her. Connie will be hosting the meeting virtually, (I'm trying not to think of the delicious poached salmon we will not be eating together at her home this year... sigh...) as Fran is unfortunately unable to be with us that day.

I apologize for the lateness of this email, but members, so Louisa can assign readings, please let Louisa know if you will NOT be able to attend. Associate members, please let Louisa know if you WILL be joining us and would like to read. Louisa will be sending readings to download and print out. Laura has volunteered to deliver printed texts if you are unable to download and/or print them out, so please contact her if you need any assistance with the readings.  Louisa has asked me to "tell our lovely members that I look forward to seeing them Wednesday." As do I! Best, Jacquie

Below: Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday

Barbara's Minutes 

First the credits: Jacquie Weitzman illustrated the meeting reminder with a picture from His Gal Friday; Christine Lehner sent out the Zoom invite; Connie Stewart acted as President and led the meeting; Barbara Morrow’s minutes were accepted as read; Associate Member Jennie Goodrich was warmly welcomed back. We decided to give a book to the Hastings Library in memory of May Kanfer, perhaps a volume of Louise Glück’s poetry. We will also make sure a kids’ science book goes to the library in memory of Susan Korsten.

Then the action began, with Louisa Stephens presenting a talk on the writing behind screwball comedies.

Goofy, wacky, zany, effervescent, fun, witty, high jinks, implausible, uninhibited—these were some of the adjectives Louisa used to describe screwball comedies, a film genre that flourished from 1934 to around 1942. She used as examples two of her favorites, Ball of Fire, written by Billy Wilder, and My Man Godfrey, written by Morrie Ryskind. She noted the rapid-fire dialogue, the verbal comedy, and the high energy of these films. Screwball comedies also drew from slapstick and vaudeville, with sight gags and quick timing.

These movies acted like a tonic during years of Depression, Prohibition, and censorship. They were an endorsement of love, but, as Louisa pointed out, they contained subversive subtexts as they revealed social and economic inequities, corruption, and greed. They could be subversive in their view of sexuality as well, and in their realignment of traditional hierarchies.

Louisa focused on three screenwriter/directors, the prankster Ben Hecht, who created the Hollywood we know; Preston Sturges, who knew how to push a story as far as it needed to go; and Billy Wilder, whose films ranged from Double Indemnity to the romantic comedy Ninotchka. We then read excerpts from Pat McGilligan’s Backstory: Interviews with Screenwriters of Hollywood’s Golden Age as well as from other books and articles.

Respectfully submitted, Barbara Morrow, Recording Secretary