Fragments 148-156 from Selected Squibs [by Alan Ziegler]

148. A child watches with delight as the worker bangs away at plaster: loud noise, destruction, making a mess—and it’s all right with everyone.

149. In our first stay in Paris, each night I stop at La Tonnelle, the grocery store across the street, where I can never get the right money to the grizzled man in the apron. I have taken to holding out my hand with all my coins, a beggar in reverse. He riffles through and selects the correct change, and I shrug and say, “Merci, désolé.” Tonight all I have is a 50 franc note (with a picture of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry), and he says his first English words to me: “You don’t have seis francs?!” He gives me back 44 francs in various sizes, shapes, and textures: silver, gold, silver and gold. I study them before I go to sleep, and practice fishing by feel through my pocket for different combinations. The next night I place two large bottles of Badoit on the counter, reach into my pocket, and hand the grizzled man several coins adding to18 francs. He counts with his eyes, smiles, and bows.

150. Zasu Pitts.

151. In the 1970s, one of my roommates works for EMS but never talks about what he does. One night, we’re all watching the local news. The reporter describes a triple murder in the Bronx, and says, “One of the victims was dead at the scene, the other two died at the hospital.” “Two were dead at the scene,” my roommate says under his breath, “and the other one died in the ambulance.”

152. Orson Welles in Touch of Evil: “Well, didn't you bring me any donuts [beat] or sweet rolls?”

153. Ben Kingsley in Betrayal: “Ah. Yes. I thought it might be something like that, something along those lines.”

154. Feeling miserable about myself and everything I stand for and miserable in the March bone-chill that permeates my marrow, I make my way to the front of the 104 bus dreading the walk up the hill against the wind. I feel a sting on my back of my head and turn to see a deranged man eyeing me with disdain. I process the sensation and realize I have just been whacked upside the head. I stare him down. “What took you so long?” I ask, and descend into the bitter night.

155. Librarian to Briscoe and Curtis on Law and Order: “Verlaine popped Rimbaud. Paul loved Arthur. Paul also loved Matilda. It was a whole mess. The French—what do you expect?.... If you really want decadent, I’d stick with Baudelaire.”

156. Baudelaire: “Orgy is not the sister of inspiration; inspiration is absolutely the sister of daily effort.”

Comments

[Stacey]

I love every one of these. And I think that Law and Order had a frustrated English major as a writer. I've caught more than a few lines of poetry. Here are two examples: Jack McCoy (the D.A.) discovers that the defense attorney was seduced by his client, a no no. "Jack," says the attorney,"Just once I dared to eat the peach." In another episode, Briscoe and Van Buren are sitting on a wire. Briscoe quotes a few lines of Langston Hughes poem "Motto." Van Buren catches it says something like "so you read Langston Hughes?" Briscoe responds that it helped him seduce the Jewish girls in Riverdale. Van Buren says it works on girls from Jackson Heights too. #154 is wonderful wonderful. Thank you for these.

[Alan Ziegler]

Thanks, Stacey! I love that Briscoe / Van Buren scene!

[Daniel Nester]

I am such a fan of these squibs I can't even. Please tell me there will be a collected!

[Alan Ziegler]

I appreciate this enormously! There will be a book--hopefully there will also be a publisher.