"Too Much Information" [by Tony Towle]

As we are sitting down to lunch,
I observe that Poetry saved my life in 1960
and ”might be doing so again at this very moment” —
even though I wasn’t actually writing. While that
is being digested, I add that, although my “official”
name is Anthony, the intent was for it to be Tony, but Tony
wasn’t considered a “real” name — which has caused identity
and authority problems ever since, but on to another subject:

in Torrid Zone, with James Cagney and Ann Sheridan,
Rosario, Cagney’s wicked adversary, coolly splits an infinitive 
in mid-film, the same verb form that Cagney had voiced correctly
half a minute before. Thus Rosario mocks both the hero
and English grammar, while he stirs up unrest among the workers
whom, in an admitted faux-pas, I have invited to join us here for lunch.
Portrait of Tony Towle by Alex Katz.

Comments

[Terence Winch]

Hail, Tony!

[Phyllis Rosenzweig]

Ditto from me. Thanks, Tony.