Boo of the Silver Rod

by Fitzpatrick, Tom

• ISBN13: 9781588380944
• ISBN10: 1588380947
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-12-01
• Publisher: Newsouth Inc

Summary

There's Boo, a gin-sipping parakeet with an encyclopedic knowledge of literature, and then there's Tom, the ex-lawyer and gentleman scholar who keeps the Beefeater's topped up in her cup. Boo's erudition and superior attitude are constants in Tom's life, as is her annoyance with his imperfect memory. Thus begins a series of chats wherein are examined some startling facts about Jefferson Davis; Shakespeare's personal sexuality; the lady lawyer who smoked a pipe and wrote superb detective stories; a noblewoman's affair with a seventeen-year-old; Elizabethan bawdy humor; an embarrassing mistake by T. S. Eliot; and Dorothy Parker as a weekend guest. This collection of humorous essays, covering a full range of literary and historical subjects, provides an astonishing array of little-known anecdotes and stories, all through a give-and-take dialogue with a stubborn uber-parakeet.

Table of Contents

Preface	9	(4)
Enter Boo	13	(9)
Boo Dines at the Algonquin	22	(5)
Boo-in-Waiting	27	(6)
Boo Enjoys the Bawdy Bard	33	(7)
Boo Observes the Sabbath	40	(6)
Boo Becomes a Mother	46	(9)
Boo & Browning's Eagle Feather	55	(7)
Boo Looks at Ethnic Humor	62	(14)
Boo & the Lost Stage Direction	76	(6)
Boo Analyzes Presidential Chemistry	82	(11)
Boo Cracks a Closet Door	93	(7)
Boo Looks at an Inflamed Venus	100	(7)
Boo Puts the Bard on the Couch	107	(8)
Boo & the ``Deep-Brained'' Sonnets	115	(12)
Boo Goes Up Attic	127	(8)
Boo & the Winged Seraphim	135	(8)
Boo & the Naked Brother-in-Law	143	(7)
Boo Spins Late Night Tales	150	(9)
Boo Goes Down Cellar	159	(10)
Boo & a Finesse of Fiddles	169	(6)
Boo Takes a Drop of Tea	175	(11)
Boo & the X-rated Opera	186	(21)
Boo Writes an Epithalamium	207	(8)
Boo & the Pipe-Smoking Lady Lawyer	215	(7)
Boo & the Second-Best Bed	222	(21)
Boo Says Goodbye	243