To the Editor:
Warmest congratulations on the début issue of the Sherman Oaks Review of Books—and to its editor, Mr. Ellis Weiner, for displaying the decency to acknowledge its, and his, debt to The Rancho Cucamonga Review of Books, of which I have the honor to be editor-in-chief.
SORB—which my sources tell me stands, in the state of Massachusetts and probably elsewhere, for “Sexual Offender Registration Board”—is to be applauded for its courage in entering a market already well-served, with a product every bit as semi-professional in content and appearance as the used car and tropical fish weekly it replaced.
As for the History of which Weiner has recently written: Of course every origin story arrives to us as myth, the exploits of its (supposed) heroes exaggerated and magnified for the vainglory of its tellers, the amazement of credulous children, and the inspiration of the common people. Far be it from me, and from RCRB, to interfere with that time-honored agenda.
Honesty compels me to note, though, that my role in the spiking of the RCRB review of Bill O’Really Talks to Kids About... is seriously misstated in your little preface piece, giving the impression that I did it out of some sort of political motive, or perhaps under pressure from our owners. Nothing could be further from the truth!
The fact is that Mr. Weiner’s review was critically incompetent. While he was correct to note that the text of Bill O’Really Talks to Kids About… is identical to that of Bill O’Really Talks About…, he completely failed to see that they are composed in different fonts, with different graphics, creating an entirely different artistic heft and Schwung. To say that the two works are somehow the “same” book is to misunderstand O’Really’s intentions so completely as to be almost criminally wrong.
You might as well suggest that Michelangelo’s Pietà in the Duomo in Florence plagiarizes his Pietà in St. Peter’s in Rome.
Well. As someone once said, “Every community in Southern California gets the review of books it deserves.” Best of luck, SORB!
C.W. Charles
The Rancho Cucamonga Review of Books
Rancho Cucamonga, CA
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To the Editor:
The world recently commemorated the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare. Your readers may find it interesting to review this list of Common Expressions We Owe to The Bard of Avon:
Paper or plastic?
It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.
“What an asshole.”
Open mouth, insert foot.
Payback is a bitch.
Too cool for school
“He is dead to me.”
It’s a funky situation.
Garbage in, garbage out
Talk to the hand
These expressions feel as freshly-minted today as when Shakespeare himself first minted them in all their freshness.
John Person
Proof-of-Purchase, NY
