Batgrl (Book Data Kept Elsewhere)’s Reviews > Dorothy Parker: What Fresh Hell Is This? > Status Update

Remember when, much earlier I wondered about her favorite four letter word? "Once before going on stage to speak before a woman's group, she exclaimed, "Oh shit, what am i doing here!" That comment due to stage fright. Still haven't figured out her second favorite four letter word, too many choices, none of which seen much in book though.

She ended up hating her two line poem about girls and glasses (News Item): "It was "a terrible thing to have made a serious attempt to write verse and then be remembered for two lines like those. ...She told Tallulah Bankhead that she must "even by accident, have said other things worth repeating, if the lazy sons of bitches bothered to find out." "

"Suddenly the passage of time terrified her. She wondered if she really did seek death. She who had never feared death and had busily cultivated her demise was startled to realize a ghastly fact: She would not be around forever to carry on her flirtation with nonexistence."

This is a good book for "warts and all" view of Parker: "Although presumed to be tolerant [of homosexual friends] she was secretly prejudiced and enjoyed making caustic remarks at their expense." And she was also well known as ripping people up behind their backs but smiling to their face.

I do feel sorry for her (2nd) husband: "On one occasion after she had roundly abused him before a gathering of friends, someone reminded her that he was a charming, handsome man who adored her. What more did she want from the poor guy? "Presents," she growled." She always did want to be independently wealthy.

Late 1930s: "A newspaper reporter asked her if she would care to say a few words about her life. By all means. It was terrible. Didn't she enjoy anything? Certainly. Flowers, French fried potatoes, and a good cry."

Description of the remodeled county farm house in PA (bought by Parker and her second husband Alan Campbell): "...The living room contained ten shades of red, including shrimp walls, Chinese red carpeting, and a wing chair upholstered in pink chintz with a large floral pattern. It was like sitting in the middle of a bowl of cherry Jell-O..." To which I say yeek. Though I'd also love to see photos.

Have discovered something that ebooks are going to change - the section in the middle of the book for photos. It's fine in a paper book when you know it's coming, but pops up suddenly (jarringly) in an ebook. Also annoying as you can't peek ahead to see what people look like, as you didn't know photos were there. Now wondering where such sections will end up, book's start or end?

"...she said, "Mr DeMille, what were you doing with zebras?" He said, "Oh the zebras. They were pulling the chariots of Mary Magdalene. ...Terrible, they kick so easily but their legs broke."

"Suddenly, Dorothy found herself inundated with invitations to literary luncheons that were held in hotel ballrooms "filled with people who looked as if they had been scraped out of drains" " - this after publication of her first book of poetry.