Trivia of the weird

[ealgylden]

Tommy Lee Jones and Al Gore have been first on my list of "what the heck?" college roommates for years (not to discount dearest friend B's adventures with "Neanna the Kleptomanic with the Wanted Felon Boyfriend Who Likes to Sleep Over," our first year at school). But I think they've just been displaced, by the extremely hard-to-picture pairing of Frank O'Hara and Edward Gorey, roommates at Harvard in the '50s. Gosh. What on earth did they talk about?

Comments

[colleenkane.livejournal.com]

LOL! I don't know, it makes a certain perverse sort of sense...

btw, I live one mile from here. (http://www.edwardgoreyhouse.org/) *g*

[ealgylden.livejournal.com]

Ack, geography-envy again. Seafood, the ocean, Edward Gorey... Okay, I have to counteract that by remembering the tourists and... um... erosion! That's the ticket! *g*

Yeah, apparently they ended up as good friends. Strange but neat. This amused me, though: "Gorey's influence permanently altered the disposition of his roommate, the poet Frank O'Hara, who entered Harvard an earnest young man and gradually came to embrace nonsense like his friend." Whoops. (oh yeah, and here's (http://www.compleatbellairs.com/biogorey.html) the article I nicked that from)

[colleenkane.livejournal.com]

correct me if I'm remembering my Wildean entendres incorrectly, but wasn't "earnest" Victorian for "gay as blazes"? *g*

I lurrrrve Frank O'Hara, by the way, and oooh! John Bellairs! I re-read The Spell of the Sorcerer's Skull every year whether I need to or not. :D

[ealgylden.livejournal.com]

Ha! Does it mean that I'm hopelessly warped if suddenly that sentence has gone all risque, what with the "earnest" and the embracing and all? Eep, my brain!

And yay! Another Bellairs fan! It's a three-way tie for my favorite between The Curse of the Blue Figurine, The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt, and The Spell of the Sorcerer's Skull. Johnny-and-the-Professor fan here, obviously. *g*

[colleenkane.livejournal.com]

it doesn't make you warped at all. Frank WAS gay as blazes, that's what made it giggleworthy for me. *g*

all my Bellairs books are in storage in NY still. :( but I bet you any money the Y'Port village library has 'em!!

[ealgylden.livejournal.com]

You know, I had no idea, though come to think of it, it's pretty darned obvious, isn't it? I like his poetry well enough, but all I know about him personally was that he was an Easterner and something of a drunk, and that could describe half of the American poets of the 20th century (with most of the rest being Midwesterners and drunks). The popular theory has it that Gorey was gay as an Easter egg, but he doesn't seem to have ever dated anyone at all, so who can be sure? Strange man. And I really need to stop wondering what sort of feverishly arty hijinks they got up to, let loose on an unsuspecting Harvard. snerk

but I bet you any money the Y'Port village library has 'em!

Heck, they'd probably get kicked off the Cape if they didn't. Those are essential reading for impressionable young minds.

[colleenkane.livejournal.com]

And I really need to stop wondering what sort of feverishly arty hijinks they got up to, let loose on an unsuspecting Harvard

no, don't, because now I'M wondering, and I don't want to go to hell alone! :D

[ealgylden.livejournal.com]

D'oh, forgot to ask- is that Viggo in your icon? It's very snazzy.

[colleenkane.livejournal.com]

tis! thanks! photoshop and dayquil, I made that this morning. *g*

[colleenkane.livejournal.com]

I meant, last night, to give you the piccie that icon is cropped from. my bad.

[ealgylden.livejournal.com]

Ooh, now that's pretty. Thanks muchly. The scruffy cowboy look works for him, definitely. Argh, I don't want to wait for Hidalgo any more! I don't have that kind of willpower!

Hey, are you still feeling not-quite-right? Pobrecita. I'm thinking healthy thoughts in your direction, so get lots of rest and feel better soon.

[colleenkane.livejournal.com]

I lost this message, buried in me inbox. thanks much - I am feeling better physically, although I put in a truly soul-sucking day at the office today, and am so pleased I have saturday and sunday ahead to revel in.

mm, cowboy. *licks*