{"id":"01KG07BS8XH6JPFPN5RWGDW51C","cid":"bafkreifeddbuuoxg42pdneovqg22ncwqkwh55nipqvzsw4sis3on3lga4y","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":3564,"extracted_at":"2026-01-27T17:17:32.055Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KFYTG9MG93RTB6YAW34V48XG","start_line":3528,"text":"  3377\t19\n  3378\tIn case you don't live in New York, the Wicker Bar is in this sort of swanky hotel,\n  3379\tthe Seton Hotel. I used to go there quite a lot, but I don't any more. I gradually cut it out.\n  3380\tIt's one of those places that are supposed to be very sophisticated and all, and the phonies\n  3381\tare coming in the window. They used to have these two French babes, Tina and Janine,\n  3382\tcome out and play the piano and sing about three times every night. One of them played\n  3383\tthe piano--strictly lousy--and the other one sang, and most of the songs were either pretty\n  3384\tdirty or in French. The one that sang, old Janine, was always whispering into the goddam\n  3385\tmicrophone before she sang. She'd say, \"And now we like to geeve you our impression of\n  3386\tVooly Voo Fransay. Eet ees the story of a leetle Fransh girl who comes to a beeg ceety,\n  3387\tjust like New York, and falls een love wees a leetle boy from Brookleen. We hope you\n  3388\tlike eet.\" Then, when she was all done whispering and being cute as hell, she'd sing some\n  3389\tdopey song, half in English and half in French, and drive all the phonies in the place mad\n  3390\twith joy. If you sat around there long enough and heard all the phonies applauding and\n  3391\tall, you got to hate everybody in the world, I swear you did. The bartender was a louse,\n  3392\ttoo. He was a big snob. He didn't talk to you at all hardly unless you were a big shot or a\n  3393\tcelebrity or something. If you were a big shot or a celebrity or something, then he was\n  3394\teven more nauseating. He'd go up to you and say, with this big charming smile, like he\n  3395\twas a helluva swell guy if you knew him, \"Well! How's Connecticut?\" or \"How's\n  3396\tFlorida?\" It was a terrible place, I'm not kidding. I cut out going there entirely, gradually.\n  3397\tIt was pretty early when I got there. I sat down at the bar--it was pretty crowded--\n  3398\tand had a couple of Scotch and sodas before old Luce even showed up. I stood up when I\n  3399\tordered them so they could see how tall I was and all and not think I was a goddam\n  3400\tminor. Then I watched the phonies for a while. Some guy next to me was snowing hell\n  3401\tout of the babe he was with. He kept telling her she had aristocratic hands. That killed\n  3402\tme. The other end of the bar was full of flits. They weren't too flitty-looking--I mean they\n  3403\tdidn't have their hair too long or anything--but you could tell they were flits anyway.\n  3404\tFinally old Luce showed up.\n  3405\tOld Luce. What a guy. He was supposed to be my Student Adviser when I was at\n  3406\tWhooton. The only thing he ever did, though, was give these sex talks and all, late at\n  3407\tnight when there was a bunch of guys in his room. He knew quite a bit about sex,\n  3408\tespecially perverts and all. He was always telling us about a lot of creepy guys that go\n  3409\taround having affairs with sheep, and guys that go around with girls' pants sewed in the\n  3410\tlining of their hats and all. And flits and Lesbians. Old Luce knew who every flit and\n  3411\tLesbian in the United States was. All you had to do was mention somebody--anybody--\n  3412\tand old Luce'd tell you if he was a flit or not. Sometimes it was hard to believe, the\n","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG072YEJMDCZYR42JF6NBF44","peer_label":"19","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFXT0KM64XT6K8W52TDEE0YS","peer_label":"More Classics","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"}],"ver":1,"created_at":"2026-01-27T17:17:32.563Z","ts":"2026-01-27T17:17:32.563Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}