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September 25, 2007
Sometimes in the quest for an answer,
we come up with more questions.
Yesterday I posed a question to my Go To Reference Girl Janet. A friend Larry E. (not his real name), had seen a review of a Polish poet in the New York Review of Books "a few weeks ago" and was blown away by the beauty of his work. This intrigued me. So off I trotted to Janet who in addition to being not only a Reference Maven is also very keen on poetry.
Well, as we hunted through the previous two issues something really struck our eye. Hey! The New York Review of Books takes personal ads! Really, really odd personal ads! This reminded me of a book which we now have ordered entitled They Call Me Naughty Lola: Personal Ads from the London Review of Books edited by David Rose. This book contains such gems as:
I'm just a girl who can't say 'no' (or 'anaesthetist'). Lisping Rodgers and Hammerstein fan, female lecturer in politics (37) WLTM man to 40 for thome enthanted eveningth. Box no. 2498.
You're a brunette, 6', long legs, 25-30, intelligent, articulate and drop-dead gorgeous. I, on the other hand, am 4'10", have the looks of Hervé Villechaize and carry an odour of wheat. No returns and no refunds at box no. 3321.
While the ads that Janet and I came across are not quite as much fun they did provide some amusement. Along with the astonishment that someone who actually reads the New York Review of Books could seriously refer to themselves as "Guinevere" and see in an other ad three columns over "King Arthur" is looking for her.
Oh and the answer to the orignal question? It was the April 26th issue (so much for a couple of weeks ago, gee Larry!) and the poet was Zbigniew Herbert.
Posted by JenniferD at September 25, 2007 11:03 AM