Reading and Eating

Our Mythopoeic book discussion group held its first in-person meeting in nearly three years, in the form of our annual Reading and Eating Meeting, which we'd tried to hold online a couple of times without complete success.

Nine people gathered in the spacious living room on top of the hill to partake of the hosts' lasagna and assorted side dishes and desserts. As I usually do, I brought something fairly substantive: a chicken and veggies creamed casserole, which I'd made at home a couple times after searching for a recipe with chicken and spinach in it, as that's what I'd had.

For reading, I brought along something old that had come up in the course of the year. I've been reading Lisa Goldstein's blog, and at one point she mentioned what a big fan she is of Harpo Marx, while reviewing the memoir of Harpo's wife. So I asked Lisa if she knew Allan Sherman's story of Harpo and the unemployment check. She replied "I sure do," so that inspired me to read the story at the REM. It got laughs in some places I wasn't expecting, including when the unemployment clerk says, "Now I know you're a liar! Harpo Marx can't talk!"

I also read the bit I described when reviewing Trevor Noah's memoir, about his friend in South Africa, a display dancer named Hitler. Noah goes on about this guy for a while, as the reader is thinking "Hitler?!", until he deigns to explain, which comes out in the end to: Why is his name Hitler? Because his mother named him Hitler.