Jim Blue noted:
"Yeah, but it did give us that marvelous line, "Never eat at
a place called Mom's, never play poker with a guy named Doc,
and never sleep with anyone whose troubles are worse than
your own.""
The last part serves as the epigraph for James Crumley's The
Wrong Case, but is attributed to Lew Archer. However, when
Lew Archer said it (I forget which book -- Chill? Galton
Case?), he said it was said by "A wise man in Chicago,"
Algren's home town.
This also reminds me of Lou Reed's story behind his song of
the same name, as told on his live album Take No Prisoners
(more a comedy album than a music album, as he talks over all
of the songs). Supposedly two entrepreneurs came up to him
(since they thought he was the second most literate rocker,
behind Ray Davies) with the idea of turning Algren's book
into a musical. Reed read it and thought, What am I going to
write songs about, a cripple going to the bathroom? Instead
he stole the title for a song about the Warhol crowd he knew
so well.
So Mario, who's next in your revivial, Hubert Selby,
Jr?
Mark
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