Jitterbug Perfume, Day 1, Page 1, 10/6/08
Mangel-wurzel! I just noticed in this ode to the beet a mention of a "ceramic asshole" which reminded me of the Japanese doctor in Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas. Can you imagine the kickass non-fiction Robbins could write?
Dale
If Robbins had a dinner party, I suspect that the conversation Robbins had with the veggies as he cooked in the kitchen would be as scintillating as the conversation in the parlor with the guests.
Dale
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MaryW witt8199@yahoo.com wrote:
Today, B is for Beet.
Kick-ass, indeed! We need only read his non-fiction magazine pieces, especially those included in Wild Ducks Flying Backward, for a taste of what an entire non-fiction book from Mr. Robbins would be. The man does have a way with facts--do you remember the exact rectal temperature of a hummingbird (104.9)? It's one fact I'll never forget. We can only imagine how grades would soar if he wrote textbooks. I mean, consider the excitement stirred up (and out) in an assignment from a culinary textbook for aspiring chefs. Especially the chapter on beets.
TR has a way of making the forgettable memorable and not merely memorable, but...well, vivid.
By the way, I came across a great 2001 interview, Fierce Individualist in a Wet Climate, by Robert Sheer and Joseph Roberts, taken before the Prophets Conference of Scientists, Healers, Poets and Mystics in Victoria, BC. If you haven't already seen it, it's well worth a read: http://www.p45. net/boards/ archive/index. php/t-15378. html
With beeting heart, I remain~
Mary
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Iris I wrote:
Mary,
That was a great article! Which other author would use "philosophical mastication" in a sentence?
Iris
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Zach Solomon seriouspolitics@gmail.com wrote:
Oh the puns! The puns!
My my, what pun!
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Dale Kirby da5e@yahoo.com wrote:
:-) Tom's logorrhea is a case of the puns. I'm glad he doesn't have a potty mouth.
Dale
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"michael mcmahan" wrote:
....not so sure 'bout that......one of my favorite 'potty phrases' comes from Switters...
as he described a South American river....."It was the color of cigar tobacco, it smelled like the butt of a cheap cheroot, and every now and then an actual cigar-like entity would break the oily sheen of its surface to glide among the citrus rinds, plastic cartons, and Inca cola cans that dotted the waters. These small torpedoes were, of course, were neither waterlogged double coronas jettisoned by a listing Cuban freighter
nor a species of blind Amazonian trout but, rather, a sampling of the ocherous projectiles fired into the river night and day from the fundaments of Pucallpa.
'A regular turd de force’, muttered Switters....."
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"carolfly" wrote:
Today's Special
Well, isn't it just? I happened back on this group recently, and am
delighted to have company in re-reading one of my favorite books. It
seems to require reading at this pace for me to have ever noticed
that, well,
Today's Special.
Thanks, guys.
- Carol
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Dale Kirby da5e@yahoo.com wrote:
Welcome back, Carol. Tom writes with a slow hand and an easy touch.
Dale
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MaryW witt8199@yahoo.com wrote:
If you close your eyes, you can almost hear him warbling sweet refrains as he slices, dices and chops. Perhaps a sweet refrain of Your Beeting Heart? Every Beet of My Heart? Love is Just a Heartbeet Away. Nervous Heartbeet?
Mary
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"julie h" julieh312@yahoo.com wrote:
I think it's more likely a rousing chorus of '...and the beet goes on.'
Without going back and looking, I can't remember now which paperback edition you thought most people would be reading from and which country was likely to have what. I am in South Africa and my copy of Jitterbug is very old. I can't remember if I bought it new or second hand or if someone lent it to me (!) but it's a Bantam Rack-size edition 1985.
Will be interesting to see if there are differences. And so we are into the tale that begins with the beet and shall end up, we hope, being both devilishly entertaining and enlightening. Whatever it is, it's a risk I am happy to be taking with you all.
Julie
xoxo
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Dale Kirby da5e@yahoo.com wrote:
Hi Julie,
It would be interesting to see if there differences in the South African edition of Jitterbug Perfume. We can be on the same page without being on the same page.
Dale
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Jitterbug Perfume, Page 2, 10/7/08
Hi Julie. Ha! The Beet Goes On is perfect. Maybe one of the tech-savvy afterlifers can do a soundtrack for Jitterbug Perfume for our reading pleasure. :~)
I like the idea that we're reading from different editions and across time zones. Blurring pages and fogging time fits perfectly with Jitterbug Perfume. No hard edges or rigid rules, just flowing from one page to the next, blending lines and ideas, creating little points of afTRlife light here and there across the globe. We'll create our own kind of beet-scented space-time warp, sprinkling Robbins's pollen dust across the universe.
Mary
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Jitterbug Perfume, Page 3, 10/8/08
Dale Kirby da5e@yahoo.com wrote:
So we meet Priscilla, one of Tom's genius waitresses. Doesn't she show up in another of his novels? Maybe Skinny Legs? This page reminds me that everything in a Tom Robbins novel is alive. And it's brought alive by brilliant metaphor. "Every toilet bowl gurgled like an Italian tenor with a mouthful of Lavoris..."And every sense is engaged.
Dale
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Jitterbug Perfume, Page 4, 10/9/08
MaryW witt8199@yahoo.com wrote:
Poor Priscilla. Oh, de agony of de feet as she watches rollaway inflation silver- streak across the tattered floor. It's a mad dash and things are looking grim(ey) for our weary waitress wincing at the memory of an intimate incident with Rikki in the washroom.
Who among us cannot relate? :~)
Mary
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Jitterbug Perfume, Page 7, 10/12/08
MaryW witt8199@yahoo.com wrote:
Oh, those New Orleans hurricane drops, pirouetting petals and Jamaican jasmine boof. What a heady scent wafts from the burbling brew. This is the city where morning comes gliding in the arms of the sun, not dragged in by the too-eager hands of the clock.
Mary
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"Deena Omar" deena.omar@tower.ac.uk wrote:
I love the character intros, imagery and general vibe in this bit, but above all it's the lime velvet love seat that gets me every time...
Deena
Deena B Omar
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