The Catcher.....

What do you think of old J D Salinger then? How many of us have read that book? That was where I first learnt to speak American. And learnt the word Godamm. In 1975, there was a whole load of schoolgirls going round saying "Godamm it!".

The damndest thing being, I picked up Catcher in the Rye again at 40 something, having read it at 16, and do you know I couldn't get into the bloody - sorry, godamm thing again! Couldn't get past the first page. Wierd isn't it.

And wasn't he a lovely bit of stuff in 1951? That was the date of the photo in the obituary anyway. I would have gone Godamming with him then,, I tell you - if I'd been born then, that is. Anyway his most recent photo, he looked like that dad out of Steptoe and Son. But then he was 90 something and drinking his own piss so you've got to make allowances.

I was impressed that he started his writing career with selling short stories to magazines. I myself have sold a story to one of these. Some time ago. But his stories went in the New Yorker, whereas mine went in Woman's Weekly. Husband says the New Yorker is shallow, a bit like Hello magazine, where Woman's Weekly is very highbrow and distinguished. AND the NY doesn't have a problem page! And where's its recipe's, thats what I want to know.

Also recently, my little cat's photo was published in a journal, on her third birthday. I had emailed this gem months before. So when I was regaling this to my mate on the phone, he said even Holden Caulfield - or whatever his stupid name is - didn't have that glory. His pet, as far as we knew, had never been published in a magazine. My mate reckoned thats why he became a recluse and odd and that.

He must have been so in awe of me.

Made a croissant chocolate pudding. Ate a bowlful, feel sick