Dorothy Parker and I have one thing in common. We share the same birth date. The similarity ends there, though. She was a successful poet, short story and screen play writer, a literary and drama critic as well as a founding member of New York's famous Algonquin Club along with Robert Benchley, James Thurber and Harpo Marx. I'm at best a moderately successful ad writer and online hack. Now that I think of it, there is another shared passion. Both of us – yes, even she, despite self-deprecation off and on – admire(d) the Dotty who could write Grouchoesque stuff like: "This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown aside with great force." And, pithily sum up the irony of the human condition as in this perceptive excerpt from the poem, Résumé:
"Razors pain you; Rivers are damp;
Acids stain you; & drugs cause cramp.
Guns aren't lawful; Nooses give;
Gas smells awful; You might as well live."
A short selection of Dotty's quips and quotes is at users.rcn.com.
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