Tuesday, Mar 22, 2022 • 5min
The Writer's Almanac for Tuesday, March 22, 2022
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“While the novelist is banging on his typewriter, the poet is watching a fly in the window pane.” – poet Billy Collins, born on this day in 1941.
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Garrison Keillor
00:08
And here is
The Writer's Almanac
for Tuesday. It's 22 March 2022.Share
00:17
It's the burst of composer, lyricist,
Stephen Sondheim
born 1930 in New York City
, he was nine years old when he went to see his first Broadway
musical. It was cold, very warm for May, sometimes said the curtain went up and revealed a piano. A butler took a duster and brushed it up, tinkling the keys. I thought that was thrilling.Share
00:42
Grew up on the Upper west side of
Manhattan
, his father was a dress manufacturer. When he was 10, he made friends with James Hammerstein
, the son of the lyricist Oscar Hammerstein
, who took Sondheim
under his wing and he went on to write the lyrics for West Side Story
and to write A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum,
Into The Woods
and Sweeney Todd
.Share
01:10
It's the birthday of the author who has the most
New York
Times number one bestsellers of any author around, who sells more than Stephen King,
Dan Brown
and John Grisham
combined. And that would be James Patterson
! Born in Newburgh,
New York
1947 whose books are published by Little Brown
, which has a team of 12 staffers devoted to handling Patterson's
books and Patterson
only.Share
01:43
It's the birthday of poet
Billy Collins
. Born in New York
in 1941. Billy Collins,
who once said, "While the novelist is banging on his typewriter, the poet is watching a fly in the window pane". His mother was a nurse, his father was an electrician. Went off to Holy Cross College
. Started publishing his poems in the back of Rolling Stone Magazine
. Came out with his first book when he was 40 years old.Share
02:17
Here's a poem for today by
Billy Collins
Banana School. The day I learned that monkeys as well as chimps, baboons and gorillas all peel their bananas from the other end and use the end we peel from as a handle. I immediately made the switch. I wasted no time in passing this wisdom on to family, friends and even strangers as I am now passing it on to you, a tip from the top.Share
02:60
The banana scoop the inside primate lowdown. I promise, once you try it, you will never go back except to regret the long error of your ways. And if you do not believe me, swing by the local zoo some afternoon with a banana in your pocket and try peeling it in front of the cage of an
Orangutan
or Capuchin Monkey
.Share
03:35
And as you begin to notice how the monkeys stop what they're doing if they're doing anything at all to nod their brotherly approval through the bars. Better still, try it out on the big Silverback gorilla. See if you can get his dark eyes to brighten a bit in the weight as the weight of him sits there in his cage, the same way
Gertrude Stein
is sitting in that portrait of her she never liked by Picasso
.Share
04:22
A poem by
Billy Collins,
Banana School, from his collection Whale Day And Other Poems published by Random House
and used by permission here on The Writer's Almanac
. Be well, do good work and keep in touch.Share
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