Noting the end of the telegram, The New York Times provided some memorable ones, inlcuding these:
Writers, of course, say the cleverest things. The humorist Robert Benchley, arriving in Venice for the first time, cabled Harold Ross, editor of The New Yorker.
STREETS FULL OF WATER. PLEASE ADVISE.
Mark Twain, like most writers, found it easier to write long than short. He received this telegram from a publisher:
NEED 2-PAGE SHORT STORY TWO DAYS.
Twain replied:
NO CAN DO 2 PAGES TWO DAYS. CAN DO 30 PAGES 2 DAYS. NEED 30 DAYS TO DO 2 PAGES.
Noting that Peter Benchley passed on over the weekend, this is a better time than most to note that Robert Benchley was his grandfather.
And this is a good time to wax nostalgic about the still wonderful writing of Benchely, R., Thurber, and E.B. White. One lifetime is probably not sufficient to read all the good stuff that the New Yorker has published over the years.
And this is also a good time to remember what Flannery O’ Connor said when she was asked if college writing programs stifled young writers. She said “in my opinion, they don’t stifle enough of them.”
Stifling myself again, for now,
muddy