January 9, 2013

From Al's Sex Journal:

Alain de Botton has released a new series of books which remind me of my journals, although he hides behind the Expert's Mask and reveals little about himself. Nor does he write all the books in his new series, which were brought to my attention by a well-written book review in The New York Times January 4th, by Dwight Garner.How To Think More About Sex is the third Botton bottom.

     Ah, ha! This crude pun on Alain's last name–not the first I'll bet anything –reminds me of an Ezra Pound anecdote I heard exact;y 60 years ago from my friend George Penty. And. thinking of George Penty, the first Southerner I ever knew, reminds me of still another hilarious incident for the Sex Journal.
     First, the Pound Pun. George was being picked up by some friends in Paris, this was in the 1930s sometime, and he was standing on a street corner awaiting their vehicle. It came, and he was directed into the back seat, where Ezra Pound was sitting. As he stepped into the car, the driver introduced him to E. P. George quipped, "Pound? I bet that's a name that's often punned."
     It turned out Ezra Pound hated puns, and he told the driver either George Penty left the car or he would. Of course, it was George who was evicted.
     I met George in Book Land, where I worked from atge 17-19, on Times Square, my first bookshop job. Turnover was high in such a joint, and George left, but we had become friends. His next part-time pick-up job was editor of what were called in those dark ages, "Girlie Magazines." A truly awful thing. George was much older than I, and he liked to tease me about what a prude I was. So he placed in the Girlie Magazine he edited, under "Letters to the Editor" a fake letter, purporting to be from me!
     Dear Editor, Liked those shots of Tiffany Tyler naked. Let's see some more!!! Thanking you in advance, Alan Brilliant.
     And he put my address too. And it appeared in his magazine!