Phyliss Liverwitz
Post #1164 – 20000807
August 7, 2000
Dear Mr. Pinkwater,
In the past, my husband read where you described the best-ever hotdog in the Hudson Valley, and where it could be purchased and happily consumed.
Please post this info, as we are hungry to know. We live in Orange County and are willing to drive to Fishkill and beyond. Price is no object. We’d like to try it before the winter kicks in.
Sincerely,
Phyliss Liverwitz
P.S. I also enjoyed “Uncle Melvin” very much.
Daniel replies:
Alas, the authentic Chicago hot dog establishment is no more. The proprietor, an excellent man, died...very likely from eating his own product on too regular a basis. So it will be a longer drive if you still want to have the experience. (I understand there are 600 hot dog stands in Chicago).
Sonny
Post #1162 – 20000806
August 6, 2000
When will you come out with the 2nd tape in the fishwhistle triology?
Cheers,
Sonny
Daniel replies:
No plans at present. I have all this writing to catch up with, and there's the radio show, and the halvah mine. I'm pretty busy.
Greg in Massachusetts
Post #1163 – 20000806
August 6, 2000
ive read 6 of your books: Robert Nifken,Alan Mandelson,the snarkout boys and the avocado of death , slaves of spiegel,the last guru ,and young adult novel. im 12 years old(this month)and ive learned about your books through my mother who is a childrens librarian.i like the books because they are funny and clever.im iterested in rock music and guitars,im learning how to surf in the cold atlantic.
Daniel replies:
I am discussing with publishers the possibility of waterproof bouyant editions of forthcoming books, to enable simultaneous reading and surfing.
Doria Summa
Post #1161 – 20000805
August 5, 2000
Dear Mr. Pinkwater,
I have been wondering a bit about Cat Nip. Specifically; when Van Veen enjoys some Cat nip is he actually impaired like a tipsy human? I mean, for example, could he get hurt operating a car or other heavy machinery? I’ve asked several people and no one seems to have an opinion. Also do you ever need any alternates for Charity on Chinwag Theater? Like when she’s on vacation or something????
Best Regards,
Doria Summa
Daniel replies:
I don't know where you are, but in NY state a cat has to be 16 before s/he can operate machinery. Charity Nebbe takes her vacations in Iowa, and we play repeats while she is gone.
Loretta
Post #1160 – 20000804
August 4, 2000
Hello Mr Pinkwater,
I like your books every much. I recently decided that I would like to be a kindergarten teacher and write decent kid stories at the same time. Everybody tells me it’s a bad job. What do you think of it and do you have any advice at all?
Thanks,
Loretta
Daniel replies:
Writing decent kids' stories is a great job, and you're approaching it intelligently, since indecent ones are impossible to get published. As to teaching kindergarten, I hear it's ok after the first year when you catch all the colds.
A. Nan Imnouss
Post #1158 – 20000730
July 30, 2000
Dear ‘O Great Won,
You are 1 of the greatest authors in the world (the others being Orwell, Tolkien, etc…) and i have always had a prattish dream that I’d have the Onner to how to you say “speak” to you. I hope you don’t mind me taking some of your “creations” (Alan Mendelsohn, Borgel) as my heroes. Oh yes, i have a friendy who has requested to know if there is any connection between the titles of Borgel, and Yobgorgle.
Dolefully,
A. Nan Imnouss
p.S. Have you aver bean to Greese?
Daniel replies:
There is a connection between Borgel and Yobgorgle in that the same author wrote them both. I was in Athens for a couple of days once enroute to Africa. I found out that those grooves in the columns that hold up the Parthenon are good backrests, and there were a lot of butterflies around the place.
Robin Shapiro
Post #1157 – 20000726
July 26, 2000
Yesterday was not going well. The weather was terrible. I had a miserable migraine, and since I’m expecting I couldn’t take very effective medication. I went home from work before lunch, went straight to bed, and tried to sleep off my headache.
After 5 or 6 hours, when I felt better, my husband brought me a box the UPS man delivered… and suddenly I felt much, much better. I wanted to live again. Finally, after months of waiting, my very own copy of Four Fantastic Novels! At last, I found out what happed after the never-sufficiently-to-be-accursed Dove Audio version of Borgle ended!
Now I dream of reading your books to our Work-In-Progress, just to let him or her know the wonders of the literary world. Thanks, and thanks to your publishers as well!
Daniel replies:
Please read my work, and that of other children's authors to your onboard offspring, and report to us if there is any variation in response. Or response. Be brutally frank--I can take rejection from the unborn, (the only group that has yet to complain about my shortcomings).
Mario Monti
Post #1155 – 20000725
July 25, 2000
Please correct the impression that diners were old RR and/or trolley cars.
Fewer than 5% of diners were such.
Most diners were (and are) made in factories and shipped out to the site.
Contact Daniel Zilka at the American Diner Museum for correct information.
He can be reached at www.dinermuseum.org or at
P. O. Box 885
Providence, RI 02901
or at 401-331-8675
Daniel replies:
My favorite diner is in a defunct Pizza Hut location. The real defining element is home fries.
Ann Dreyer
Post #1156 – 20000725
July 25, 2000
Dear Mr. Pinkwater:
I found your program on the radio quite by accident and have greatly enjoyed it! But I have only heard 2 programs: the one about the moose that cooked in the restaurant, and the continuing saga of Borgel.
I am a special education teacher and would LOVE to know where I may find audio recordings of your reading. It is your voice that makes the time fly. I tried looking all around the chinwag theatre website but didn’t find what I was looking for.
Can you help? Thanks!
Daniel replies:
At present there are no plans to offer recordings for sale. Maybe later when we get some help. Right now the whole Chinwag Organization is Charity Nebbe, me, an intern a half-day once a week, and our fine webmaster. We WILL be posting more information about forthcoming broadcasts, and we will certainly be repeating classics, like the Blue Moose. So people can tape. See?
Susan Seaman
Post #1154 – 20000724
July 24, 2000
Dear Mr. Pinkwater:
After hearing you read Toby Speed’s potato book (you will soon see I am horrible with names) during my Saturday day morning “Weekend Edition” clothes folding ritual, I immediately set off to write her about how much I love “Two Cool Cows,” one of my three favorite children’s books. That evening, when some friends were visiting and we were feeling just fine, one asked me to read “Two Cool Cows,” out loud. (Actually, he asked for “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,” first, but it was packed away.)
I read “Two Cool Cows,” plus I insisted I read “The Big Orange Splot,” the second of my three favorite children’s books. “(If you’re curious, my third favorite is “Captain Abdul’s Pirate School.” I don’t know the author off hand. I should pay more attention to these things) They loved it, as well.
The next day, when Toby Speed wrote back, she mentioned your name specifically (I just said Weekend Edition), and FINALLY it sparked. “The Big Orange Splot” was lying on the couch where I glanced over and By George, the author of one of my very favorite children’s books was reading one of my other very favorite children’s books. PLUS, you’re on NPR. Now that I actually know your name, you can bet I’ll pay attention whenever I see or hear it. If you would just be a guest on “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me” I would have to build an alter to you.
Alas, I have no questions.
Daniel replies:
As a matter of fact there was talk about my being a panelist or the host on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me! Later they found out I was an idiot. But you can start work on the shrine now.
David Lorczak
Post #1153 – 20000722
July 22, 2000
Herr Doktor Professor Pinkwater,
I am afraid that this probably won’t be brief enough to be posted on the (un)official site, but I hope it might come to your attention anyway. I am a middle-aged fan who only began reading your work seven years ago. In the 40 books of yours I have read (thank god for interlibrary loan programs), I have noticed a conspicuous absence of the game of baseball, leaving me to assume that you are disinterested in it at best. Still, I hope that you will find it interesting to learn that there is a wonderful, mystical, imaginary online baseball league called the Cosmic Baseball Association which has recently drafted you to pitch next year for the Eden Bohemians of the Middleleague. This is a writer’s team. Their roster this year:
Catcher – Sinclair Lewis
First Base – Andre Breton
Second Base – Georges Perec
Third Base – Franz Kafka
Shortstop – Miquel Cervantes
Left Field – Yukio Mishima
Center Field – Ring Lardner
Right Field – Ernest Hemingway
Utility Infielders – Gustave Flaubert, Virginia Woolf
Extra Outfielder – Alfred de Musset
Pitchers – Antonin Artaud, Harry Crosby, Ted Hughes, Edgar Allan Poe, Theodore Rilke, Delmore Schwartz, Derek Walcott (retiring after this year, to be replaced by Daniel Pinkwater) and Nathanael West.
The team, which plays its home games in Odradek Stadium, is “owned” by Simon de Beauvoir. Its General Manager is Henry Miller; Manager: Fielding Dawson; Coach: William Thackeray.
They are currently in third place in their eight team league.
Congratulations on this new endeavor, and always bear in mind the relationship between proper nutrition and performance.
I bow at the waist,
David Lorczak
Daniel replies:
Sounds ok to me. I like imaginary sports. (So do most people, come to think of it). I'm famous for my ""borgel-ball"" which arrives at the plate in another time continuum.
Dr. Richard Spitzer
Post #1152 – 20000722
July 22, 2000
Dear DP:
A few years ago I heard an excerpt of one of your tapes on NPR while calmly driving down Ventura Blvd. in LA. I vividly recall a portion in which a dog starts to speak in Yiddish; I nearly lost control of my car. His Yiddish, by the way, was far better than mine.
Anyway, I’d love to get ahold of that tape, principally because my 97 year old father would probably get a big kick out of it. Which story? On which tape? And is it still available?
PS: Ratatouille diet works.
Thanks,
Richard Spitzer, MD
Daniel replies:
Actually, that wasn't an excerpt from a tape, but a reading from a work in progress, that's still in progress. So..not available yet. And there are no official tapes of my stuff available either. The best I can suggest along the lines of the Yiddish-speaking Malamute in the Yukon, (which I like myself), would be the collected essays in ""Hoboken Fish and Chicago Whistle,"" published by Xlibris, and available from them ( xlibris.com ) or from amazon.com. Later, when Chinwag Theater gets some corporate underwriting, and we can add a whole person to our staff, we may contemplate starting to release some tapes--but not yet. Thanks for asking, and giving me the opportunity to discuss this, as though corporate types read this website.
Michael Sideman
Post #1151 – 20000718
July 18, 2000
I just received a copy of “4 Fantastic Novels” in the mail, and was shocked at the photographs on the cover. The Daniel Pinkwater that I read is an elegant British author, a tall thin man who looks like Jeremy Irons with a touch of Brad Pitt. Who is responsible for the outrageous cover on “4 Fantastic Novels”? Got to run, late for a hootenanny.
Daniel replies:
Clearly you don't recognize Tyrone Power whose photo is used in place of mine, (as I am totally reclusive and anonymous like a lot of classy authors), on the cover of ""4 Fantastic Novels.""
Tyler Hewitt
Post #1150 – 20000716
July 16, 2000
Hi Daniel
I moved to Chicago a little while ago (two years, actually), and knowing that you used to live here, am wondering if you could suggest a ‘Daniel Pinkwater Chicago Tour’ of places you liked, former residences, places you worked,etc.
Daniel replies:
Read ""The Education of Robert Nifkin"" for a something like a Chicago tour.
