House Style

The Million Dollar Book Club is working its way through a biography of Erich von Stroheim, in which we are apprised of the subject's "night-owl habits." As you know, that is just enough of an owl to encourage me to include the book on my ever-lengthening list of books with owls in them. Erich von Stroheim joins previous Million Dollar Book Club night owls such as Polly Adler and friends, Anna Magnini (as related in Bricktop's memoir), and, of course, Andy Warhol (you may "click" here for corroboration if you are not convinced that Andy Warhol was a night owl) in the Million Dollar Book Club Night Owl Club. But that's not why I'm here! I watched the rest of CAFE METROPOLE, and the plot hinged on games of chance, much like "McNeil Month by Month." And I considered how much I pitied a newcomer to the "blog," given our "house style" that, since the beginning, has avoided the separation of "posts" into paragraphs. I'm doing it right now! Or, rather, not doing it. I was talking about one thing and now I am talking about another thing, and yet there has been nary a paragraph break. I rest my case! Be that as it may, my original intention was to draw the novice reader's attention to some particular sparkling gem from the overwhelming slab of undifferentiated text that is "McNeil Month by Month," thereby giving an orientation... of... uh... what was I talking about? It's too late. As Adam once wisely observed, "If you're doing the thing, you're also doing the thing." Well, I just wanted to draw everyone's attention to the May 2023 entry of "McNeil Month by Month" in which McNeil came up with a way for a dog to win at blackjack. Believe in your dreams!