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chris - 2007-08-15 08:45:09
Paula: Do you not remember in 1995 standing in bookstore in village reading the selected verse of phil Rizzuto? I wish i could find the one about ricky henderson and his legs.
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Baby Party - 2007-08-15 09:34:42
I remember the one about the microphone and his head getting bigger...or something like that.
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Mr Lojban - 2007-08-15 09:46:44
As a kid not in New York, Phil Rizzuto to me was (1) the worst player in the Hall of Fame and (2) the spokes-shortstop for a lending bank called The Money Store, which, surprisingly, still exists.
Our Mr Martin got tripped up on the "hold a candle" definition -- he defined "cannot/does not hold a candle to". It's an easy mistake to make, because that's the expression; no one says "Bronwyn can hold a candle to Gwyneth," right?
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chris - 2007-08-15 09:59:56
Yep, the veterans committee at the hall is all about getting the drinking buddies in. When I got my first job on Wall street, I used to tell people back home in florida that I worked at The Money Store. Its speaks of phils media heft that most believed me.
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Paula - 2007-08-15 10:59:25
Chris: I hadn't thought of that book, or that incident, in years, but a few weeks ago I was reading an old journal of mine and it said, "Chris and I had lunch and then stood in Barnes & Noble and read O HOLY COW out loud for a half hour, laughing hysterically." And now this!

Anyway, the Scooter's droning Yankee commentary was a constant in my ancestral household, as were the Money Staw commercials. He really was a New York fixture.
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maggie - 2007-08-15 11:27:09
I clicked on the Simon Rich New Yorker blurb. I laughed out loud at work. I cancelled my subscription to the New Yorker recently, specifically because Shouts and Murmurs NEVER makes me laugh.
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Paula - 2007-08-15 13:02:56
The thing that bugs me about the New Yorker is that I never win the weekly cartoon caption contest, and the winners are almost always lame! I swear they don't go through all the entries.
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Paula - 2007-08-15 13:12:48
Oh, also: if you like that particular Shouts/Murmurs piece, I can tell you that pretty much everything else in the book is as funny.
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maggie - 2007-08-15 13:22:45
Oh ho, aren't you on the mailing list? I would say once quarterly they send an apology email explaining how they pick the winners and why you shouldn't get mad at them.
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Paula - 2007-08-15 13:25:50
explaining how they pick the winners and why you shouldn't get mad at them.

No, I don't think I ever got one of those--what's their deal?
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bad meow - 2007-08-15 13:38:12
I need to get that book again -- gave my copy away to a Yanks fan. < . . . > BELA LUGOSI!
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maggie - 2007-08-15 14:25:19
Re: New Yorker Caption Contest: Basically, they get hundreds of thousands of entries, and these must be sorted into categories of types of answers...there aren't many that are unique or different...I think they go with the trend of captions as opposed to finding that real stand out caption, otherwise they couldn't produce the feature each week.
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Paula - 2007-08-15 14:35:27
Maggie: I figured it was something like that.

Bad Meow: I just ordered the book from the library. Perhaps we can all gather around it soon.
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Baby Party - 2007-08-15 15:04:49
I found it!

ALIENATION

I think my head shrinks a little

In this indoor stadium

I am...

The mike is getting bigger.

And I have to tighten it.
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Paula - 2007-08-15 16:14:46
Oh, god, that's great...I found some more online...
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2fs - 2007-08-15 23:09:46
I've entered the NYer cartoon-caption contest online a couple times. My mind always tends to work obscure, though: for example, there was one about a month ago with a couple next to a small swimming pool, in which all the water had formed into an enormous cresting wave nearly twice as tall as they were. They seemed rather blase about it.

Anyway (you have to now imagine the shape of that crested wave), my caption was, "Dear? For some reason I just thought of Elvis." Dammit but the thing really did look like Elvis's hair...
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Dan - 2007-08-15 23:21:22
I own a copy of O Holy Cow! (maybe it was a gift from Baby Party) and will take requests in honor of the fallen poet. I think this is the one Chris wanted: He has powerful legs and cute buns, That Henderson. That was a great shot. Going to second base there. There's nothing wrong with that, White. That's a popular expression. High, and it's one and one. His legs were churning. ==== I went to Yankee Stadium on Monday night for the first time since 1964, and that's the night Rizzuto died.
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Dan - 2007-08-15 23:27:03
Geez, can't screw up the formatting with blank verse. Let's try again.

====

I own a copy of O Holy Cow! (maybe it was a gift from Baby Party) and will take requests in honor of the fallen poet. I think this is the one Chris wanted:

He has powerful legs and cute buns,
That Henderson.
That was a great shot.
Going to second base there.
There's nothing wrong with that, White.
That's a popular expression.
High, and it's one and one.
His legs were churning.

====

I went to Yankee Stadium on Monday night for the first time since 1964, and that's the night Rizzuto died.
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Greg - 2007-08-16 03:01:39
And where would Meatloaf have been without Scooter?
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Paula - 2007-08-16 07:30:11
I went to Yankee Stadium on Monday night for the first time since 1964, and that's the night Rizzuto died.

I see causation. Don't feel bad--the day after I started reading my first Robertson Davies novel, he died, and I believe that I, too, was responsible.
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chris - 2007-08-16 08:29:06
Dan Thanks for the Poem! My book is back in NY. There was another one about legs as well. I do like Alienation the best...
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Dan - 2007-08-16 23:55:12
Here's the other poem about legs, which is certainly one of Rizzuto's best:

The legs are so important.
In golf they're very,
People don't realize
How important legs are in golf
Or in baseball
And football, definitely.
Track.
O, in track.
All-important.
Jumping.
Soccer.
Is there anything, what?
Is there anything where the legs
Are not the most important?
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