My grandmother often told me, “La ignorancia is atrevida,” [ignorance is daring] when some
politician or friend had done something stupid. I apply that to myself,
frequently.
I have had on my bed table a little black button in my
possession now for a couple of years. I got it at an Art Bergmann concert. He
had the buttons made because that was the title of one of his recent albums.
Some many years ago Vancouver Magazine rock column
writer Les Wiseman and I went to New York City. One of the places Wiseman
insisted on going to was the Algonquin. We sat in a little table and because
when the joint became famous it was prohibition, patrons drank water so did we.
Over us was a dark spot on the ceiling where the chandelier that was over the
famous Algqonquin Round Table must have been.
Somehow I decided in the last few days to look up the
the origin of question in Bergmann’s button. You can believe how astounded I
was to find out it had been uttered by Dorothy Parker!
Because of my advanced age of 84 I have increasing
problems with memory and particularly with names. I find myself using tricks to
remember them. For a while I could not remember the name of a Canadian singer I
had photographed. My trick was to remember Leonard Bernstein and that then
pointed to Leonard Cohen.
To remember that leading woman (I would never use the
word lady as only women can use it) I think of a Vancouver friend called
Dorothy Barkley and then I connect to Parker Pen.
I try not to read the news these days as Parker’s
question applies more than ever.
And obviously Art Bergmann is a man of culture.