Comments, Critques, Response to the Editors Messages
Oct 19, 2000
To: Kimit A. Muston
From: Richard Koss
Re: "Debates 3 - Public 0"
Richard Koss takes issue with Kimit Muston's essay on the great debates, "Debates 3 Public 0". Click here to see the entire text.
Oct 19, 2000
To: Jack Knox
- Inditer.com
From: J. F. Collins
Re: Knox Column
I have read the Knox article which was well written & informative.
You should take pride that your monumental achievement with Inditer has found recognition in such esteemed columns of the newspapers.
There is much that can be added to your saga of having, under the extreme pressures of health, with all the political overtones of the manner in which the disease was spread, having overcome the human tendency to engage in justified self-pity and instead giving so much of yourself to the cause of promoting English literature on the internet.
Cecil Rhodes could not have imagined the empire you have carved out for English. One man one desk and one computor (er) (Check your Oxford - - correct spelling) !
If the Society proclaims the sovereignty of the mind, you have, by the grace of God, actualised it!
Bravo Bill! - - jfc
Oct 17, 2000
To: Jack Knox - Inditer.com
From: Sid Tafler
Re: Knox Column
(re inditer.com) That's a great service, showcasing good writing.
(re: Jack Knox) I kinda thought the part about your illness and the government stalling on the
compensaiton was a little downplayed. What we used to call a buried lead.
Sid Tafler
Oct 17, 2000
From: Your editor
Re: The Jack Knox Column
Since the Jack Knox column appeared on October 16, 200, there has been further, but unrelated action regarding the medical problems of your editor. Some rather encouraging news was received today. There is, after all, if one seeks diligently enough, compassion and caring in the bureaucratic maze that surrounds us. Your editor would like to thank a caring man, Doctor Patrick Doyle and the compassionate staff at the Vancouver Office of Canadian Blood Services. Dr. Doyle illuminated a dark corner of our life when we were certain all hope had gone.
Email the editor.
To: D. Grant DeMan
From: John Clennan
Re: Locked Chilcote Cabin Caper
The Locked Cabin is the finest detective stroy since the time A Conan Doyle
wrote the last Sherlock Holmes.
What makes it stand on its own right as opposed to a Doyle copy is the
effective use of local colo[u]r and local police slang (the King George).
I did love Sherlock Holmes. Have some Holmes trivia:
Which Sherlock Holmes short story or novel had a US setting?
(a)"Sign of the Four", partially set in Utah, during the Mormon Rebellion (1859-60).
Which had American characters?
(a) The Four Pips and Hound of Baskervilles.
Back to the Locked Cabin.
If our entire civilization were swept away leaving only fragments for the few
remaining scholars sequestered away from the collapse, the copiests would say
of The Locked Cabin that it was probably an obscure Sherlock Holmes story
with a Canadian North-West locale previously left out in the codex. The
Locked Cabin is that good.
John Clennan
Oct 14, 2000
To:Peter Gorman -
Donald Grant DeMan
From: John F.Clennan
Re: President Gray - Harpy; The Beginnings
Very cute -- an adorable piece.
I also loved D. Grant DeMan's Harpy 2 - The Beginnings (pre-quel). Liked the parallel story
technique Donald Grant employed.
John F.Clennan
Oct 08, 2000
To - Rosemary Bowery - Jim Stallings - Kimit A. Muston
From: Fran Alt - Rick Williams
Re: 'A Man Named Enoch' - 'Harriet' - 'The Great Taco Crisis'
Read two very short stories at Inditer.com this week.
Rosemary Bowery's - "A Man Named Enoch" and "Harriet", by Jim Stallings. Both were quick easy reads. Both were enjoyable.
'Enoch' presented an interesting anecdote, while 'Harriet', offered an entire lifetime in a nutshell'. To both authors -- Good work!
I sent Kimit's 'The Taco Crisis' to my dairy list. Wanted see how farmers would respond.
Rick Williams did. Read what he had to say below.
Fran Alt
*****
Response by Rick Williams to 'The Great Taco Crisis of 2000 by Kimit A. Muston'
The writer does not seem to have an understanding of the Bacillus thuringiensis product. He makes it sound as if it is a chemical that is applied when it is sprayed on the fields. Also, compared to the Bt gene inserted in ALL the corn plants, the Bt is only used when a problem is detected. Not pre-emptively. This is an enormous difference when it comes to exposure of the organisms to a substance that will lead to selection of those mutations that resist the bacillus.
"I think the Bio-Chicken-Littles should stick their panic in their gnomes and smoke it. I think the news media should stop treating genetically altered food as if it were something new, rather than a new technique for an old science. And I think all the great Taco crises proves is that ultra-liberals are as terrified of the future as arch-conservatives."
Excellent use of ad hominem attack on those awful bio-chicken-littles.
Sincerely, Rick Williams
Oct 06, 2000
To: - Email Rosemary
From: Ronald. E. Payne, Chicago, IL
Re: A Man Named Enoch
I just read "A Man Named Enoch" by Rosemary Bowery.
When she tells a story, you almost believe you are on the scene. She really
puts you in the front row. One gets the distinct feeling she has lived most
of what she writes. This man she calls Enoch sounds a lot like a man I used
to know.
I always look forward to reading her stories and poems in the Inditer.
Keep up the good work.
Ronald E. Payne, Chicago, IL
Oct 03, 2000
To: Rosemary Bowery,
Tom Bentley,
Kathryn Jennings-Hancock
From: Donald Grant DeMan
Re: "A Man Named Enoch" -
"Wars and Rumours of Wars & etc" -
"Following Bob"
It makes my banjo heart ring with joy to see Rosemary Bowery back
spinning her tales, "some of them true" as she puts it. My-oh-my, can this
little lady dish out a Sunup simultaneous tear and laugh in less time
than it takes to button up my long johns and break the ice from my rusty
wash-bucket.
A Man named Enoch is right up there with.....
The finest!
******
Tom Bentley's stories ring so true and fine, that one suspects he lives
under the skin with Bill Loeppky in a heavenly paradise, gritty to the
extreme, in golden rural Saskatchewan, high on alkaline water and gopher
stew. An excellent tale, well told and with more latent themes than the
books Grandpa prescribed.
Congratulations Tom!
******
Loved this story ("Following Bob") by Kathryn Jennings-Hancock, though I don't know why. Perhaps it's because the writing is brilliant, rife with intrinsic stream of consciousness running like a night freight to hell on the distant horizons of the mind, pitted and broken rails underlaid with ties peaty and wormed through, so's I listen with heightened distinct expectations of a momentary crashing derailment. Creeping along a mosquito net that's been stretched across the universe and scattered with broken glass?
Peppermint Gothic? Who is to know?
Mood mood mood! Only the author would take such chances.
Congratulations
Donald Grant DeMan
Oct 01, 2000
To: Kimit Muston
From: John. L. Graves
Re: The Limits on Term Limits (Tom Hayden)
Just read your column on Hayden in the LA Daily News and Inditer.com. He just might fit into that wierd group currently on the City Council. But a vast majority of the
armed forces veterans consider Hayden and his ex-wife Hanoi Jane to be
traitors to this country for their actions and comments in Viet Nam.
John. L. Graves
Oct 01, 2000
To: Donald Grant DeMan
From: Bob Garland
Re:Dead by a Dam Site A tale well told
I'm rising from a slump these days,
Been down so awful low.
Thought I'd check the 'diter site
To see what Bill might show
Of stories new from Don De Man
That cop with Beans 'n Rice,
Where readin' of his well-wrought prose
Might make me feel right nice.
And so I did, and so I am
As wonder lit my eyes
To read of felon by the dam
-That story took the prize!
For though you've gotten better Don
With each tale you have spun
I think this is the very best
That you have ever done!
Dreamweaver spin another tale!
You move our hearts you know,
Your words can make our sorrows pale
Your stories wisdom show.
If ever I could find the strength
To wander o'er the land
I'd beg to knock upon your door
To smile, and shake your hand!
|
Bob Garland
Sep 30, 2000
To: Sean A. Labbe
From: Donald Grand DeMan
Re: "Not On My Account"
What a completely enjoyable short story is Sean Labbe's "Not on My
Account", written in the tradition of the real literary form. How
insightful, and seeming simple, yet twitching touching the nerve of all
human enconter recollections.
The hero is not a big risk taker, and we see clearly why within the delicate lines. Nevertheless I view this as a rare love story, one that lingers and lingers with its inward
reflections. And what erudite writing. Well done Sean!
Donald Grand DeMan
Sep 28, 2000
To: the Editor
From: Ric Masten
Re: It's mutual!
Walking & Talking
I wanted to thank you
for taking the time
to walk and talk with me
this morning
I can't begin to tell you
how much it helped
oh, that's OK
I was glad to do it
however
I thought that you
were walking and talking
with me
Ric Masten
Sep 27, 2000
To: John F. Clennan
From: "Fran Alt"
Re: Give Me A Song
This light, enjoyable verse, contains adorable lines like:
Tell me you care
lighten my pain.
and
Blanket the air
with sweet little lies.
'Give me a song' will bring a smile to the reader's heart --- at first.
John has the prospect of a really good poem here, but it needs work. There
are unnecessary stanzas that a good editor might suggest a bit of magic
for -- like make them disappear.
I'd suggest a rewrite to tighten it up but overall -- I enjoyed reading "Give Me a Song"..
"Fran Alt"
Sep 26, 2000
To: Cailean Darkwater
From: Donald Grant DeMan
Re: "Changeling"
Dear Bill,
I am somewhat at an advantage having had a preview of this dark
introspection. As usual Cailean writes with chilling phrasing and narrow
finely-chisled focus, biting to the extreme. The title, though apt to
the story, has a distraction for me. Indeed the literary gypsie world
may well take issue with this use.
Nontheless, Cailean does not write lightly, and leaves a tear within the
open mind. OOOOOoooooo!!!!!
Donald Grant DeMan
Sep 24, 2000
To: D. Grant DeMan
From: J.F. Clennan
Re: Dead By A Dam Site
On "Dead By A Dam Site", at the head of the bay in Old Rockaway, the water is in
Queens, the dry land in Nassau County. The NYC Police Department may on occasion have
pushed, or so it has been said, a body the opposite way onto land. The
sentence in Nassau County would be 25-L x 2, inside NYC it might have been 15-L.
J.F. Clennan
Sep 23, 2000
To: D. Grant DeMan
From: J.F. Clennan
Re: "Harpy"
I read Harpie. Surely your best. Hitchcock-Poe, in style with a cross
between a Hitchcock and O'Henry twisted ending. Hitchcock had a left handed
moral - - O'Henry had a left handed sense of futility - - You put both together.
Each time I say DeMan has finally reached his zenith, there is one even
greater one the way.
J.F. Clennan
Sep 23, 2000
To: Kimit Muston
From: D. Grant DeMan
Re: L.A. Heat Wave
Kimit and to Bill too:
Kimit has done it once and twice again. The wit, the charm, the insight
has been honed to a needle point. As a side effect, he has given me an
incredible rebirth of enthusiasm for the cool climes of our balmy giant
Island: Now a sunny room temperature with the birch leaves beginning to
fall like golden Crowns, or, as the USAnians like to put it, Gold
Eagles. What writing! Now where's the novel?
ed note: don't shoot! I'm just the messenger. I would like to see the novel too! (Bill)
D. G. DeMan
Sep 22, 2000
To: "John Davis Collins" - "Kimit Muston" - - "Kathryn Jennings-Hancock"
From: "Fran Alt"
Re:"Pop-Pop" - - "Watching the Olympics" - - "How Sally Got Her Name On It"
Read John Clennon's "Pop-Pop on "Vinny's" advice. 'Pop-Pop's' a cute little story. Actually it's a really good read, but -- the viability of the twins not knowing why their dad has been going to the courthouse is a bit ludicrous.
On "Watching the Olympics" -- I agree with Kimit, I like my Olympics the same way I like my steak - a bit on the rare side.
Kathryn Jennings-Hancock - "How Sally Got Her Name on It" . . . now there's an interesting piece of writing. Very good! Not my cup of tea but very, very good...kinda stuff you might expect to find in the New Yorker!
Fran Alt
Marty Gallanter's new book, "A Little Lower Than The Angels" available now click the pic
Sep 20, 2000
To: D. Grant DeMan
From: John Davis Collins
Re: Dead by a Dam Site & Mister Wheeler and the Renegade Newspaper Boy
Check out Donald Grant DeMan -Dead by a Dam Site
Maria waits no longer! A cute piece. D. Grant DeMan leads us on to the twist and the
surprise. Hey DeMan, I didn't think you was a NYC cop!! I do recall working on a case where I suspected the cops from NYC pushed the body outside their jurisdiction into Westchester County. - - - ed note: G'wan! they wun't do dat! would dey?
As for Mr. Wheeler and the Renegade Newspaper Boy, a cute piece well worthy of Dickens or Doyle from the classic era of short fiction.
John Davis Collins
Sep 18, 2000
To: Ric Masten
From: Donald Grant DeMan
Re: Words & One Liners (Silence)
Dear Bill,
The poem, the illustration! Priceless. My God how I wish I could join
them. Masten continues to be a master. Bravo!
Donald Grant DeMan
Sep 18, 2000
To: Kimit Muston
From: Brady Wood
Re: Watching The Olympics
Amen.
Last night's (September 16th) presentation of the gutsy little synchronized
swimmers was enough to make me switch to an old Leslie Nielsen comedy.
Brady T. Wood
Woodland Hills
Sep 18, 2000
To: D. Grant DeMan & John D. Clennan
From: Fran Alt
Re: Mr. Wheeler and the Renegade Newspaper Boy
D. Grant DeMan
"Mr. Wheeler and the Renegade Newspaper Boy"
I read about Mr. Wheeler with keen admiration for DeMan's word-smith talent.
I soon found myself wondering that perhaps the "greatest good" in the
author's life was being afforded the opportunity to grow up in a society
that harbored such affluence in rhetoric. I dream of visiting Victoria and
meeting Donald and Bill, but I must admit that I would feel totally
inadequate - me with my New York street vernacular and 'them' with all the
eloquence their writing implies. Maybe John Clennon could come along as my
interpreter. 'How's your street-talk John? Got any left after all that haute
monde lawyering?'
Fran Alt
ed note: News for you Fran: I don't know about L.I. John and his haute-monde lawyering, but speaking for DeMan and me....we're just po' folks. DeMan, retired cop, artist, writer, bit of a
home spun philosopher, and me, retired after what seemed like two lifetimes as a broadcaster and broadcast journalist...not a haute monde in our bones! Our Island and our City might give you an idea that all folks in this western LotusLand might be a little uppity....as they say in these parts, 'more British than the Brits', but I assure you, that ain't the case with most of us. NYC street vernacular is just fine with me. I know it is with John too. Check out his American Standard Jive Dictionary.
Bill
Sep 16, 2000
To: Kimit Muston
From: Donald Grant DeMan
Re: Aids Fairy Tale
Love this.
Well written, as is the usual Muston epistle, and
informative. In the same vein I have lamented that the thousand trials
discounting the grave danger of MSG has not yet reached the ears of
those who scream at the thought of consuming the oriental
taste-enhancer. Those poor folks in the restaurant busness, now forced
to leave it out; though they rely on the ignorance of their customers by
providing soy sauce on the side, saturated with the stuff.
Alas this Aids ruse is costing the lives of thousands, if not millions.
Witchcraft seems alive and well.
As one who gives not a hoot whether or not the gang around the cooler
speaks to me or not, I can say bravely that I avoid the Olympic like a
plague, for it may set me to betting and gaming and bad habits I abhor
and love simultaneously. As usual Kimit slays us with his wit and good
clean fun, with a prose lively as an Irish washerwoman's....lilt. But
I'd sure enjoy the rest of that novel...mmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!! Donald Grant
DeMan
Thanks Kimit!
D. Grant DeMan
Sep 12, 2000
To: John Davis Collins
From: Vinny
Re:Check out John Davis Collins - "Pop-Pop"
Thank you for that cute story
Jody thanks you also
Regards
Vinny
Sept 11, 2000
To: Margaret Karmazin
From: D. Grant DeMan
Re: Cover Up
This story held great enjoyment for me. It is well written and
constructed with much thought and expertise. Margaret is to be
congratulated for her unique creative projection of an ideal without
appearing to do so. Her character speak loudly and well, whispering from
the page. A sterling piece of literature.
D. Grant DeMan
Sep 11, 2000
From: Fran Alt
To: D. Grant DeMan
Re:Bubbles Balloo and the Victoria Times Paper Boy
"Bubbles Balloo and the Victoria Times Paper Boy" ~ DeMan is delightful!! I loved this well-written piece with its' bookish tone and its' sense of indigence and whimsy. Put this one on the Highly Recommended List!
Fran Alt
Sep 10, 2000
From Farzana Moon - Farzana's Literary Site
To: D. Grant DeMan Re: - Bubbles Balloo
To: Warren Masten - Re: Bard Upon The Bay
To: Richard Koss - Please Read My Poem - (below here)
Dear Bill,
Bubbles Balloo is ethereal and charming...haven't read a good story since
ten years at least!!! It has the rhythm of youth, with all its purity and
innocence. Like sweet, colorful bubbles, it ebbs and floats, revealing the
beauty of Victoria and its own pulse of eteranalness...D. Grant DeMan is
witty and profound.
Warren Masten's, The Bard Upon The Bay, is simply delightful...have always
wanted to attend the Shakespeare festival? Of course, how could his story
not be wonderful, since he invoked the name of Minerva in the first
sentence, my patron goddess!!!
Richard Koss' poem, Please Read My Poem is sad and beautiful! Sad, because it dares sing the hymns of
truth. And beauitful, for the voice of heart in tune with the mind creates Beauty.
Three cheers for them and Inditer.
Best wishes,
Farzana Moon
Sep 09, 2000
To: Richard Koss
cc To: mentor_rpps@theglobe.com
From: John F. Clennan
Re: Please Read My Poem "Ars Poetae"
Dear Bill:
Greetings in fullosia the lion of philosophy and heir to phi.
I had a good chuckle at the poem Please Read My Poem. There's a double truth in that. Of course all writers want people to read their works, but most writers are also good readers.
Here in the New York City area, where just about every other person is a writer, half of the United States' book sales are made.
By Please Read My Poem, I called to mind an aspiring poet I ran across in my Greek diner days. Most of the stuff the dear bard wrote did not catch the beat of the language and had boring unimaginative rhyming schemes: a-a, BB, CC, DD, EE, et seq.
The owner of the diner tolerated him in the circle because to a Greek a bad poet is still a bard. Barda philosophum non facet. In the course of the literary circles discussions, I, the would-be poet explained he had never read any poetry.
By accident, the poet laureate of this forgotten literary group produced a fantastic poem that caught the beat of English so well, it could have been a gift of the muses. Yet as well as that poem was done, our dear poet hated that poem.
Regrettably the poet laureate crossed Adele just once, with a remark that might be described in Rockaway as "unchristian." And contempt of legal secretary ranks with contempt of the desk sergeant as the two most heinous offenses possible in law.
Thus in the Greek diner saga the would-be poet was entirely written out of the story.
John F. Clennan
Sep 09, 2000
From: Fran Alt
To: Warren Masten
Re:The Bard Upon The Bay
Shakespeare fishing &The Bard Upon The Bay & so excellent. It was as though the bard himself had written it. Probably did. Tell Warren I said thanks - thanks for being the medium.
Fran Alt
You just told him Fran! ed.
Sept 08, 2000
From: Fran Alt
To: Ryszard Krasowski
Re: Pencil Sketches
Ryszard,
I envy your talent. I don't know much about art but these sketches are alive. The intensity of the characters is overwhelming!
The perfection in your art takes on the quality of a photograph - only better!
I am super-impressed.
Fran Alt
Sept 08, 2000
From: Fran Alt
To: The Editor
Re: "Teen Wedlock" by Farzana Moon
Bill,
Farzana Moon is incredible 'Teen Wedlock' is a masterpiece!
Farzana catches the soul of the special child and shows it in the glow of - Fluorescent's light.
Between this and Krasowski's sketches, today is truly special at the Inditer.
Fran Alt
From; Richard Koss
September 4, 2000
Hi Bill,
I read your sad commentary on how little help Kimit has received from all of
us (I include myself). I haven't had much time lately, since one of our
partners passed away and quite frankly, I don't know that I could be all
that much help to him. I think he's a hell of a writer.
This poem was inspired after reading the poetry and reviews submitted by
some really young people on another site. I hope you will not misinterpret
that I am targeting the poets submitting their work to the Inditer, as I
know there is a much higher calibre of wrting on this site than the other
site I am referring to.
Please Read My Poem
Richard Koss
We create, we write, we post our poems
hoping you'll at least read them and maybe
even comment with a few nice words or more
but if you're not so kind, so be it, we're not sore.
We want to please, so we beg each other,
show me yours and I'll show you mine.
But then, some of us fall into a trap,
forming a mutual admiration rap.
Oh, just loved your poem, you write so well.
Great, the way you brought out this and that.
Though that's not really what you had in mind,
you thank them again, for being all so kind.
So on and on and back and forth it goes,
the stroking, that seems to help us continue
to write with inspiration, our creativity energized,
when in truth, we've only just become a bit more patronized.
Some of us have not yet learned, and maybe never will,
to write within our means, to draw from real life.
And if we haven't got there yet, let patience lead the way.
The years will let us know in time, exactly what to say.
We all hear different drummers, follow different paths.
What seems simple to some of us, is quite complex to others.
Some dwell upon life's mysteries, seeking to unwrap,
while others look upon their work as ordinary crap.
Please read my poem, and above all, please be honest.
But if you feel you've nothing to say, I'll try to understand.
Don't feel you must be kind if you think I haven't said a lot,
I'm here to learn, just like you, reach back, take your best shot.
Read the work ( and comment on it) by Richard Koss
Poetry too from Dick Koss
Take your best shot.
Send us your opinion, comment, critique on any of the writers or artists at editor@inditer.com. Please include the word 'Critque' along with the writer/artists name in the subject line of your email.
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