{"id":"01KG07B2HTJ5RZ7B0WKTZ13FY6","cid":"bafkreif4rhmtpet2o3tuuv2fnsmfmkw2ivscz3qwmlgfnffxfevbvjcuce","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":3452,"extracted_at":"2026-01-27T17:17:08.781Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KFYTG9MG93RTB6YAW34V48XG","start_line":3408,"text":"  3263\tabout three years older than I was, and I didn't like him too much, but he was one of these\n  3264\tvery intellectual guys-- he had the highest I.Q. of any boy at Whooton--and I thought he\n  3265\tmight want to have dinner with me somewhere and have a slightly intellectual\n  3266\tconversation. He was very enlightening sometimes. So I gave him a buzz. He went to\n  3267\tColumbia now, but he lived on 65th Street and all, and I knew he'd be home. When I got\n  3268\thim on the phone, he said he couldn't make it for dinner but that he'd meet me for a drink\n  3269\tat ten o'clock at the Wicker Bar, on 54th. I think he was pretty surprised to hear from me.\n  3270\tI once called him a fat-assed phony.\n  3271\tI had quite a bit of time to kill till ten o'clock, so what I did, I went to the movies\n  3272\tat Radio City. It was probably the worst thing I could've done, but it was near, and I\n  3273\tcouldn't think of anything else.\n  3274\tI came in when the goddam stage show was on. The Rockettes were kicking their\n  3275\theads off, the way they do when they're all in line with their arms around each other's\n  3276\twaist. The audience applauded like mad, and some guy behind me kept saying to his\n  3277\twife, \"You know what that is? That's precision.\" He killed me. Then, after the Rockettes,\n\n<!-- [Page 74](arke:01KFYTAC62KYX49VQXF2086TDA) -->\n  3278\ta guy came out in a tuxedo and roller skates on, and started skating under a bunch of little\n  3279\ttables, and telling jokes while he did it. He was a very good skater and all, but I couldn't\n  3280\tenjoy it much because I kept picturing him practicing to be a guy that roller-skates on the\n  3281\tstage. It seemed so stupid. I guess I just wasn't in the right mood. Then, after him, they\n  3282\thad this Christmas thing they have at Radio City every year. All these angels start coming\n  3283\tout of the boxes and everywhere, guys carrying crucifixes and stuff all over the place,\n  3284\tand the whole bunch of them--thousands of them--singing \"Come All Ye Faithful!\" like\n  3285\tmad. Big deal. It's supposed to be religious as hell, I know, and very pretty and all, but I\n  3286\tcan't see anything religious or pretty, for God's sake, about a bunch of actors carrying\n  3287\tcrucifixes all over the stage. When they were all finished and started going out the boxes\n  3288\tagain, you could tell they could hardly wait to get a cigarette or something. I saw it with\n  3289\told Sally Hayes the year before, and she kept saying how beautiful it was, the costumes\n  3290\tand all. I said old Jesus probably would've puked if He could see it--all those fancy\n  3291\tcostumes and all. Sally said I was a sacrilegious atheist. I probably am. The thing Jesus\n  3292\treally would've liked would be the guy that plays the kettle drums in the orchestra. I've\n  3293\twatched that guy since I was about eight years old. My brother Allie and I, if we were\n  3294\twith our parents and all, we used to move our seats and go way down so we could watch\n  3295\thim. He's the best drummer I ever saw. He only gets a chance to bang them a couple of\n  3296\ttimes during a whole piece, but he never looks bored when he isn't doing it. Then when\n  3297\the does bang them, he does it so nice and sweet, with this nervous expression on his face.\n  3298\tOne time when we went to Washington with my father, Allie sent him a postcard, but I'll\n  3299\tbet he never got it. We weren't too sure how to address it.\n  3300\tAfter the Christmas thing was over, the goddam picture started. It was so putrid I\n  3301\tcouldn't take my eyes off it. It was about this English guy, Alec something, that was in\n  3302\tthe war and loses his memory in the hospital and all. He comes out of the hospital\n  3303\tcarrying a cane and limping all over the place, all over London, not knowing who the hell\n  3304\the is. He's really a duke, but he doesn't know it. Then he meets this nice, homey, sincere\n  3305\tgirl getting on a bus. Her goddam hat blows off and he catches it, and then they go","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG072RDVD8R7AN16YZF285SS","peer_label":"18","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFXT0KM64XT6K8W52TDEE0YS","peer_label":"More Classics","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"}],"ver":1,"created_at":"2026-01-27T17:17:09.114Z","ts":"2026-01-27T17:17:09.114Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}