As a devoted reader of NYTimes obituaries I noted the passing of Harvey Shapiro, poet and editor, on Jan. 7, 2013. I was not familiar with his work but quote below a few snippets:
-Caught on a side street in heavy traffic, I said to the cabbie, I should have walked. He replied - I should have been a doctor.
-When can I get on the 11:33 I ask the guy in the information booth at the Atlantic Avenue station. When they open the doors, he says. I am home among my people.
-Who created you? Jacob J. Shapiro and Dorothy Cohen. They created me. Who will uncreate you? Impossible to predict just now but my money is on pastrami. (unquote)
One of my favorite humorists was S.J. Perelman, a New Yorker who followed some of the literary crowd to bucolic Bucks County, Pennsylvania. After six months down there he abruptly returned to Manhattan where a friend was surprised to find him walking the streets at night. S.J. explained he couldn't write in such unfamiliar territory as he found he had lost his "New York Idiom."
tjs
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