{"id":"01KG6FVKJP9F44JRNJZSQFCTJJ","cid":"bafkreifsnejss3vqsh52dyftwu3jamvhytcvdesmn4xtjlxb74kfzp753e","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":3459,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T03:41:20.744Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG6FT59BXAZ3C5HRJ6SW8F58","start_line":3412,"text":"Columbia now, but he lived on 65th Street and all, and I knew he'd be home. When I got\nhim on the phone, he said he couldn't make it for dinner but that he'd meet me for a drink\nat ten o'clock at the Wicker Bar, on 54th. I think he was pretty surprised to hear from me.\nI once called him a fat-assed phony.\nI had quite a bit of time to kill till ten o'clock, so what I did, I went to the movies\nat Radio City. It was probably the worst thing I could've done, but it was near, and I\ncouldn't think of anything else.\nI came in when the goddam stage show was on. The Rockettes were kicking their\nheads off, the way they do when they're all in line with their arms around each other's\nwaist. The audience applauded like mad, and some guy behind me kept saying to his\nwife, \"You know what that is? That's precision.\" He killed me. Then, after the Rockettes,\n\n<!-- [Page 74](arke:01KG6FHT9M3KRZMY1T0TD4TDMP) -->\na guy came out in a tuxedo and roller skates on, and started skating under a bunch of little\ntables, and telling jokes while he did it. He was a very good skater and all, but I couldn't\nenjoy it much because I kept picturing him practicing to be a guy that roller-skates on the\nstage. It seemed so stupid. I guess I just wasn't in the right mood. Then, after him, they\nhad this Christmas thing they have at Radio City every year. All these angels start coming\nout of the boxes and everywhere, guys carrying crucifixes and stuff all over the place,\nand the whole bunch of them--thousands of them--singing \"Come All Ye Faithful!\" like\nmad. Big deal. It's supposed to be religious as hell, I know, and very pretty and all, but I\ncan't see anything religious or pretty, for God's sake, about a bunch of actors carrying\ncrucifixes all over the stage. When they were all finished and started going out the boxes\nagain, you could tell they could hardly wait to get a cigarette or something. I saw it with\nold Sally Hayes the year before, and she kept saying how beautiful it was, the costumes\nand all. I said old Jesus probably would've puked if He could see it--all those fancy\ncostumes and all. Sally said I was a sacrilegious atheist. I probably am. The thing Jesus\nreally would've liked would be the guy that plays the kettle drums in the orchestra. I've\nwatched that guy since I was about eight years old. My brother Allie and I, if we were\nwith our parents and all, we used to move our seats and go way down so we could watch\nhim. He's the best drummer I ever saw. He only gets a chance to bang them a couple of\ntimes during a whole piece, but he never looks bored when he isn't doing it. Then when\nhe does bang them, he does it so nice and sweet, with this nervous expression on his face.\nOne time when we went to Washington with my father, Allie sent him a postcard, but I'll\nbet he never got it. We weren't too sure how to address it.\nAfter the Christmas thing was over, the goddam picture started. It was so putrid I\ncouldn't take my eyes off it. It was about this English guy, Alec something, that was in\nthe war and loses his memory in the hospital and all. He comes out of the hospital\ncarrying a cane and limping all over the place, all over London, not knowing who the hell\nhe is. He's really a duke, but he doesn't know it. Then he meets this nice, homey, sincere\ngirl getting on a bus. Her goddam hat blows off and he catches it, and then they go\nupstairs and sit down and start talking about Charles Dickens. He's both their favorite\nauthor and all. He's carrying this copy of Oliver Twist and so's she. I could've puked.\nAnyway, they fell in love right away, on account of they're both so nuts about Charles\nDickens and all, and he helps her run her publishing business. She's a publisher, the girl.\nOnly, she's not doing so hot, because her brother's a drunkard and he spends all their\ndough. He's a very bitter guy, the brother, because he was a doctor in the war and now he\ncan't operate any more because his nerves are shot, so he boozes all the time, but he's","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6FV1MSFNFB4DZE3SZQJND1","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6FT59BXAZ3C5HRJ6SW8F58","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KFF1K6A8V452X8SQKY55DD16","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6FVJW19G2KFP6J9E68K1XV","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6FVKJNJKJ7YHKYE8KTVBG5","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T03:41:25.974Z","ts":"2026-01-30T03:41:30.925Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}