One other thing I wanted to mention about that Times article: it was titled "A Person Could Develop Occult," which, as far as I can make out, is a "pun" on the line "a person could develop a cold," from the song "Adelaide's Lament" in the Broadway classic GUYS AND DOLLS. Strange, I thought. Despite the appearance of the Salvation Army, and Stubby Kaye's number about riding on a "little boat to heaven" during the revival scene, there is very little supernatural content in GUYS AND DOLLS. It reminded me of when Tom Bissell's book THE FATHER OF ALL THINGS was reviewed in an article titled "Nam and Pop." Of course, the book really was about his father and Vietnam. So looking back, maybe I was too hard on that article's title. Which brings me to the fact (which I have perversely avoided bringing up here so far today, though the "blog" is nothing but a tawdry organ of self-promotion) that I wrote one of the book reviews in today's edition of the New York Times. There, I said it. (Pictured, Stubby Kaye, in the very scene.)
