| From: |
Bud Grossmann < > |
| To: |
Ernie Reinhold < > |
| Date: |
Jul 30, 2023, 2:52 PM |
| Subject: |
Happy Birthday 2 or 3. |
I invite you to look at my WoW dated July 30. I don’t recall whether you ever fact-checked the 2006 WoW that it’s adapted from. I’m curious about how closely our memories might match, of that ride at your ranch.
Love, Bud
| From: |
Ernie Reinhold < > |
| To: |
Bud Grossmann < > |
| Date: |
Jul 30, 2023, 8:31 PM |
| Subject: |
Re: Happy Birthday 2 or 3. |
Thank you! I had forgotten that event, so I thank you for bringing it to mind. And, no, I’ve never fact checked the original—I always say that facts should never get in the way of a good story, and you did indeed compose a great story. I’ve always wondered why you so often (almost always) fictionalize and use pseudonyms in your stories. Is it to protect the guilty?
Good chatting with you today and I am so sorry that Carol is doing poorly. I think pain is easier to bear than misery, and it sounds like Carol is miserable.
I went to the gas station/convenience store/liquor store a few minutes ago to buy myself a quart of ice cream (which wouldn’t be so bad if I knew how to control my ice-cream-eating behavior, but I don’t) and I mentioned to the lovely check out lady that, as it was my birthday, I thought I deserved ice cream. She went to a display in the store and chose a package of Hostess Cakes, decorated as birthday cakes (you surely know the kind) and bought them for me, with a “Happy Birthday” wish. I mentioned it to Laura on arriving home, and she said that the same lady did the same thing for her on her birthday. Every time I see this lady, who is so friendly, I wish that I were Jesus and could reach out and touch her right eye, which is badly crossed. Why the fuck isn’t the world without suffering and sadness and burdensome afflictions?
| From: |
Bud Grossmann < > |
| To: |
Ernie Reinhold < > |
| Date: |
Aug 1, 2023, 9:47 PM |
| Subject: |
Writing Fiction, Reporting the News. |
Thank you, Ernie, for the note you sent yesterday evening in reply to my birthday greetings. I always appreciate feedback on what I write.
I don’t have a specific policy of when to tell a story as Family History, sticking closely to my own recollection, or when, instead, to assign fictitious names and do some selective embellishing and omitting. But, yes, I do sometimes attempt to “protect the guilty,” as you say, in hopes that my readers’ disapproval will fall upon David C. Fischer, instead of on the author himself. As another example, I wouldn’t want readers to suspect that a real-life Stanley was ever tempted to shoot a mule deer out of season.
I mentioned to Dave Fischer what you told me of receiving an unexpected birthday gift from the convenience store lady, and of your wish that you had the power to set straight her crossed eyeballs. Dave wondered whether you remembered from your theological study of the ninth chapter of John’s Gospel just how complicated ophthalmological miracles can be.
But he had another thought, too. Dave asked whether you had considered it might be possible that the sweet lady, by reason of her esotropia, is blessed with seeing fully twice as much beauty in the world as those of us whose eyes are more conventionally aligned.
BG
♦
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