Kenneth Cadow

February 9, 2000

Post #1035 – 20000209

Mr. Pinkwater,

We are reading some of your books for a children’s literature class at Dartmouth. I grew up in Poughkeepsie, and had a very influential teacher named Mr. (Mike?) Mazachi or Mazocchi, and he had a brother named Steve. Were either of these guys your inspiration for Dr. Mazocchi in the Hoboken Chicken Emergency?

Just curious, Until I saw “Hoboken,” I’d never seen the name appear in print anywhere except in the photo of my sixth grade class and my grammar school autograph book.

Daniel replies:

No, it's the name of a spaghetti joint that existed not far from Times Square where a bunch of people could have a meal for a dollar each. I'm not completely sure, but the name was something like ""Professor Mazzochi, Inventor of the Spaghetti System."" During and after college, I hung out with a crowd of mostly artists and actors, and much of the interaction took place in cheap restaurants with rickety old bentwood chairs, wobbly tables, and 60 or 70 years worth of paint disfiguring the coathooks on the walls. All gone by now, I expect, and there's nothing much of anything left in Poughkeepsie.