not a clever guy …
they do my thinking – should have …
hired a conscience, too
… I’m not a clever guy. I never pretended I was long on brains. I have a publicity man and a gag man and a few writers. People like Hagenborn and Peck. They do my thinking for me.” [ said Tony ]
“You should have hired a conscience, too.” [ said Bill ]
From H as in Hunted by Lawrence Treat (Duell, Sloan and Pearce, New York, 1946).
When Lawrence Arthur Goldstone’s law firm broke up in 1928, shortly after he had begun to work there, he traveled to Paris. A friend living in Brittany provided him with free room and board, and Goldstone decided to settle down and teach himself to write. His knowledge of law led him to try his hand at crime writing. He sold his very first novel and returned to the United States to write full-time under the name Lawrence Treat according to Wikipedia.
Recently in article in the New York Times about old books worth reading, H is for Hunted was listed so I got a copy and am enjoying it.
I really want to stay off of politics but when our hero, Bill, tracks down Tony to ask about what happened when they were together during the war and why Tony let it sit for 3 years, Tony says that line above which I’ll quote again:
… I’m not a clever guy. I never pretended I was long on brains. I have a publicity man and a gag man and a few writers. People like Hagenborn and Peck. They do my thinking for me.
They do my thinking for me.
Sure reminds me of the bunch of folks lining up to take jobs where there will be running the Executive Branch of our government.
They aren’t clever (well, maybe they are.)
They hire publicity men, gag men, a few writers.
They do their thinking for them.
To paraphrase what Bill said, I wish they had hired a conscience, too!
Still working on the use of the ellipsis in haiku.
But it’s my blog, my rules.
So there you are.
No Haiku For You 