Worth

Barry Alfonso at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, whom I quoted in my post on the mysteries of Mary Worth, writes in.

I wanted to take note of your taking note in your blog of my piece about Mary Worth earlier this year in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. I like being mentioned in the same prose environment as Miniver Cheevy. I also like thinking about Mary Worth and Miniver Cheevy together: the austerity, the astringency and the void-like limboism of their shared atmosphere -- the balmy nowhere of Santa Royal overlayed upon the withering saltiness of Robinson's Maine. I digress. Anyway, thanks for noticing.

Folks reading via my LiveJournal feed may be puzzled by the reference to Edward Arlington Robinson's poem Miniver Cheevy. I publish the original version of this blog on Blog*spot (now run by the nice people at Google) under the masthead “Miniver Cheevy: some things I find interesting,” because I have used the web handle Miniver Cheevy since before the web, even before the internet.

And to Mr Alfonso's point, I agree: it is pleasing to imagine how Ms Worth would — in her languid, eliptical way — encourage Mr Cheevy to get his life together.