Caricature of Bill
by Glenn Brucker
Critiques & Comments
Marty Gallanter's
new book,
"A Little Lower Than The Angels"
available now
click here
August 10, 2000
To: Kimit Muston
From:John F. Clennan, Esq.,
Re: "Oh Canada" Kimit Muston's essay on Democracy in Canada
When I was in college, many moons ago, the esteemed Professor Cieplak one year switched the emphasis from Russia to Poland in his course on Eastern Europe with prediction that the future would be "the time" for European's more, unnoticed countries like Ukrania, Lithueania and Poland. In 1971, he was generally regarded as suffering from wishful thinking at best or senile dementure at worst.
There is a certain determinism in the rise and fall of nations such that the great and powerful fragment while others endure and thrive in the winds of change.
Former citizens of parliamentary democracies have told me that the vote of non-confidence followed by election has a great advantage. It saves the country from a long drawn out melodrama by immediately voting the rascals out. And I can see much merit in what they see as the strong point of parliamentary democracy: let the voter decide whether to keep or discard a government in crisis and end the dispute at the ballot box for good.
On the other hand, the definite election day in November in America served two purposes: (a) politically it prevented congress and state legislatures from voting to extend their own terms: (b) socially it secularized Guy Fawkes Day, an important English holiday at the time of independence. Until recent times, election days, like the English holiday it subsumed were accompanied by torch light parades and bonfires. Thus, on the American merry-go-round, the disgraced pols get an extra turn until their term expires. Sincerely,
August 08, 2000
To: D. Grant DeMan
From: John D. Clennan, Esq.,
Re: Forensic CosmetologyI loved D.G. DeMan's Safecracker (Forensic Cosmetology) .
Literature seizes a moment of real life and sends it into a new universe. Literature is not real life, but from time to time the search for the fantastic sits in a yawing gap between fiction and reality. As nature abbors imbalance, a correction must be made.
In the Safe Cracker, we see what many cops I have met or cross-examined mights privately call a good "cop-to-crook" relationship. Perhaps in some parts of the United States, we could set the cops and the crooks in difference dialiects. But in others, the cop might whittle while sitting along side the crook.
While there is a chase scene in the opening paragraph, in Forensic Cosmetology, most crooks like the retiring safecracker peacefully surrender to police. . The major accomplishment of Safe Cracker is its expression of the magic of real life. The cop-to-crook rapport and that grudging humanism, which moves the cop to allow the crook to retire in peace or in pieces makes Safecracker worthy of comparisson to O'Henry (W.S. Porter).
Most of my criminal clients by the bye were more like the Safecracker than any body you'd find in TV. Few ever raised a fist in anger; most surrendered to the police peacefully, and a great majority rendered confessions.
Every once in a while a correction must be made to make literature expressive of real life. In Knight of The Pistle, (Ben Jonson, if memeory serve me) "the audience" rebels against the stock Knight-in-shining armor story, the high speed police chase of the Shakesperian age and calls upon the author to write a story about themselves.
O'Henry (W.S. Porter) emerged in Father Knickerbocker's New York with that same principle: literature such reflect life not reinvent it. O'Henry rebelled against the High Victorian melodrama set in the upper middle class drawing rooms where wives and husbands "did" each other for insurance proceeds or fantastic inheritances. Instead O'Henry wrote of the cop on the beat, the little boy who missed school, the town drunk, people you might meet on the street.
Will DeMan and Inditer.com head the next evolution in literature as O'Henry and the sun did a century ago?
We certainly encourage to do so and hope he will perserve. O'Henry himself spent many hours in Madison Park watching the sparrows, while on his way to fame.
July 31, 2000
Bill Loeppky, editor/publisher at Inditer dot Com interviews
Bruce Batchelor, Co-founder and CEO of Trafford On Demand Publishing
July 27, 200
To: John D. Collins
From: Donald Grant DeMan
Re: Belle of the Ball - for Susan KravitzLoved "Belle of the Ball" - for Susan Kravitz - by John Davis Collins. As a sixteen-year-old high school senior I mooed - along with a dozen other disreputables - after an Atlas cafe knockout who dated a college football star. Once I got so bummed out in my longing for her charms, that I drank a tenth of Captain Morgan's Rum with a dash of Coke, and passed out on the floor beside her.
Hard are the facts of life we learn. My congratulations to this fine author upon the brilliant presentation of a fine slice of it.
July 24, 2000
Ed Note: The following comments are printed as received by inditer.com. There has been no editing.
From: Thomas Dean:
To: Email Jeffrey Dane
Re: Aaron Copland, Dean of American ComposersExcellent report on Aaron Copland in Aaron Copland, Dean of American Composers ,,, Aaron Copland is my favorite composer ,,, It is said of him by him that Aaaron Copeland sought to express traditional American melodies in the formal symphonic form ,,, Contrary to the outpouring of his many admirers, Copland took credit with his critiques and did not believe he had succeeded ,,,
Some critics knock Copland's seriousness as a composer because copland wrote the scores for many popular motion pictures,,, The scores for the motion picture show the same talent and craft ,,,
glad you printed mr dane's comment
Thomas Dean:
July 13, 2000
To: Cailean Darkwater
From: Donald Grant DeMan
Re:AriadneCailean Darkwater writes like an angel. For an old codger like me who sees the world as a fine place, though aware that every organism eats every other organism, it is revelatory to hear the beauty of one who still sees through a glass darkly. Terriffic writing, superlative morality play, a fresh approach to an old but elusive theme. Cailean is to be congratulated for her wisdom and sensitivity, gentleness and discipline.
July 12, 2000
To: Sheila Moss
From: Thomas Dean
Re: Janet Simons - New Girl In The OfficeI really got a good laugh at New Girl in the Office.... the modern world certainly provides many opportunities for mischief.
There's quite a bit of the new girl in the greatest story that can't be told even without the techno-drama dimension.
Liked your accession to the Bibliotheque Nationale du Canada .... ain't seen that much Francais in Inditer.Com since mad mary (Marie le Fou)
Thomas Dean
July 09, 2000
To: John D. Collins
From: PREZ010 (Vinnie)
Re: Check out John Davis Collins - Benedict Arnold - Fortunes of WarAn excellent rendition of little known facts and scenarios. Very well written and very inspiring to read.
Shall John Andre's fate be the measuring stick for our Greek Phenomenon?
Best regards,
Vinnie.
Inditer dot Com is now being archived by the
National Library of Canada as part of it's electronic collection.
From:Kimit
To: the Editor
Re: Canadian National LibraryBill
I wanted you (and everybody else I know) to know how proud I am that your web site (which has been posting my work for the last year) has been chosen by the National Library of Canada to be catalogued and archived. You've worked so very hard on this, Bill, and you should be very, very proud of your accomplishment. You, sir, are an innovator. When they write the story of how literature moved from the printed page to the printed screen, your name will be remembered; A Canadian Guttenberg. No kidding.And just so you don't get a swelled head: A hundred years from now, when some Canadian high school student struggles to finish his web site assignment on the state of literature in the long dusty distant turn of the century, he will read your name, copy it and get extra credit. In the name of all future generations of Canadian teenagers, I salute you.
And all kidding aside....Bill, I salute you.
July 06, 2000
To: John D. Collins
From: D. Grant DeMan
Re: Fortunes of War - Benedict ArnoldI was enthralled by this magnificent essay. John Davis Collins has, in my humble view, contributed widely and deeply to our understanding of these difficult but exciting times in American and British history. The research is definitive, and the writing lively. And, it would seem, all bases are covered including the fate of the Iroquois Nation as per the American side, those mighty warriors and farmers who so eagerly aided the British and their colonies in the conquest of New France. With John Davis Collins, history is a sprawling, many-faceted enterprise!
June 20, 2000
To: Richard Koss
From: Thomas Dean
Re: "The Perfect Ending"Loved "The Perfect Ending" .... it ended perfectly!
June 14, 2000
To: John D. Collins, 'The Pen, The Sword and the Wreath"
From: John GiuffreJohn:
The Hunter Point story (The Pen, The Sword and The Wreath) is your best yet.
See you Sunday.
June 14, 2000
To: Kimit Muston's 'Inventing Bill Gates'
From: Donald Grant DeManAnother well-written essay by a master. It is a privilege to read this author.
June 06, 2000
From: Lord Woodbury
To: D. Grant DeMan
Re:'Red's Bones' - 'History of the BCPP' - etc
Loved both of D. Grant DeMan's items on The Inditer. History of the British Columbia Provincial Police gives a part of police work handed down in fable where the line is skewered to right a wrong. As best can be done under the circumstances.
On the funny strip Blondie - well I am, despite my children's belief that I at least served under Andy, by Gad Jackson if not George Himself - not quite so old that I recall earlier Blondie - Dagwood - Mr. Dithers sagas. When I was an avid funny strip reader Blondie belonged to the newspapers my parents didn't like - the Journal, American, World-Telegram. Later when the icons of printers square fell, and the old newspapers folded Blondie started to appear in the (NY) News & Long Island Star. By that time I didnt follow the funnies quite so faithfully. Looking back on the rather straightforward plots of Blondie I can see how much times changed.
From: C. D. Miller
To: Shauna Kelley
Subject: Shauna Kelley's essay on "Ignorance"I read your essay on the net today and enjoyed it. In the late 60's or early 70's I kept a record of instances of ignorance, folly and greed. The rules were simple. It must occur before your very eyes and it must be obvious enough to explain immediately. The record was compiled by the staff of 5 or 6 pharmacists and 3 or 4 clerks in a retail pharmacy. The results surprised us all. Ignorance was so far ahead after about 4 weeks that we stopped counting and began to change our behavior to solve problems by asking questions and seeking knowledge until the problem began to solve itself. We were of course dealing with the immediate problems and not the world problems you are addressing.
What you call involuntary ignorance I called simple ignorance. The second category I called learned ignorance to account for what one learns from sources that are in error. The third category I called willful ignorance and includes your voluntary and wrong ignorance. A combination of 2 or 3 becomes compound ignorance. Willful ignorance has a degree of emotion in it that makes it different from the first 2. The largest sign on my bulletin board reads " Danger Extreme IGNORANCE Approach with caution" and the second reads "ignorance kills".
All in all it is clear that knowledge is finite and ignorance is not. The problem with knowledge is that if changes constantly and what was true becomes partly true or not true at all. So the wise person becomes as aware as possible of what knowledge he can count on and tries to avoid ignorance in all its forms.
I hope you address this again about every 10 years and see if your essay changes.
Thanks
April 28, 2000
To: Shauna Kelley
From: Donald Grant DeMan
Re: She's Too Smart For MeDear Shauna:
As my old English professor used to put it, "Ya done good - real real good!"
Smiles.
April 25, 2000
To: John Davis Collins
From:Frances Fasano Alt
Re: Swallowed a FlyI loved Swallowed a Fly !! I it may be your best work yet. But . . . what's with words like 'flat' and 'dole'? Have we been abroad a bit too often?
April 17, 2000
To: The editor
From: Sam PersonHi Bill.
Saw the posted emails to you from Shelia Moss and Kathryn Jennings-Hancock.
Naturally, I am happy for them.
But, I also am happy for you. You should be rather proud of all that "The Inditer" has accomplished for so many contributors by providing a forum for exposure and a source of encouragement.
Best regards,
Sam PersonThanks a bunch Sam,
Bill
April 16, 2000
Hi Bill,
May I take this opportunity to also share a bit of my good news with you. My website was listed this week by Yahoo! in their Columns and Columnists section - http://dir.yahoo.com/Entertainment/Humor/Columns_and_Columnists .I have been reflecting on the people that have helped me get where I am so far. I have no doubt whatsoever that writing for the Inditer and the exposure it gave me has helped my credibility tremendously. You are performing a fabulous service for struggling talent. Thanks so much!Sheila Moss -http://www.humorcolumnist.com
April 16, 2000
From: Kathryn Jennings-Hancock
Hi Bill!Thanks so much!
I can't tell you how much I appreciate The Inditer. I had word this evening that three articles/essays of mine were accepted by a women's ezine, and when I initially sent them, I referenced The Inditer as a place where they could review more of my work.You know, I never really thought of playing dice as a way to catch a husband (although the idea for "Fair and Square" came from a woman who wanted to play cards to decide whether or not to leave her husband. Heard that years ago, and it just stuck in my head. Don't think she ever followed through). I actually met my husband on an Amtrak train, and maybe there's a story in that.
Thanks again, Kathryn
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