In 2000, Tony Early published a novel called "Jim the Boy." It is a terrific book, a Depression-era tale about, well, a boy named Jim. Everybody should read it. I read it while riding the train between New Jersey and New York. And then I learned, from Early's acknowledgments in the back of the book—in which he thanked New Jersey Transit—that he WROTE THE BOOK while riding the train between New Jersey and New York.
I mean, c'mon.
It IS kind of a short book ....
TODAY'S SCORECARD
9:03, window seat, on time; snorer behind me.
TODAY'S TRAIN SONG
"Sally Maclennane" by The Pogues
"And we walked him to the station in the rain/And we kissed him as we put him on the train/And we sang him a song from times long gone/Though we knew that we'd be seeing him again."
TODAY'S TRACKSIDE SIGNAGE
FABCO
WORDS TO LIVE BY
"I heard that Ketchel's dynamic onslaught was such it could not readily be withstood, but I figured I could jab his puss off... I should have put the bum away early, but my timing was a fraction of an iota off."
--Philadelphia Jack O'Brien, on fighting Stanley Ketchel, in 1909
2 comments:
Did Jim the boy become James the man?
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