John Seroff

January 1, 1997

Certainly no one book has had a greater influence on me than alan mendelsohn boy from mars. coming from a jewish background in the astoundingly goyish world of goodlettsville tennessee i was beginning to wonder if i was some sort of yid freak… what better way to discover that i WAS… and that this was good. Currently rereading everything i can find and was absolutely blasted to tears by fishwhistle. I can’t imagine ever growing tired of your work. In the midst of the last guru, borgel and ovid’s art of love (a pretty damn funny piece in and of itself. just felt the need to take the time to tell you how important you and your stories have been to me. Nobody does it better. Thank you for the life you’ve led and the words you write. Any chance of another book of NPR commentary soon?

yer everlasting gobstopper pal

john seroff

Thanks for the kind words. No plans at present for another collection of NPR pieces. For a while publishers were bringing out every imaginable kind of NPR-related book. Most of them didn't make money--which, in present-day, Hollywood-style, business terms doesn't mean they didn't show a profit...but that they didn't show a HUGE, OBSCENE profit. See, just making back your expenses, with something left over, is considered a failure. So no publisher is anxious to do an NPR collection. Recently, a movie producer told me the whole company was depressed because their last film only cleared 40 million. Poor babies. Now all the other greed-head idiots will laugh at them.