First of all, I had no idea Kurt Vonnegut, Jr was born before my father. I always think of him as young. I thought he was maybe ten years older than me, so when I read of his death on Tuesday at age 84, I was shocked. I would have thought John Updike was older than Vonnegut – or that they were the same age.
I cannot say I was ever a huge fan of Vonnegut’s work, but did read and enjoy a couple of his books in high school – Cat’s Cradle & Slaughterhouse 5. They’ve stuck with me all these years later – certain passages from the novels will always be a part of me.
The tribute on his website, is particularly moving. It is a simple bird cage, the door open with the words Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. 1922 – 2007 underneath.
[Edited March 18, 2021] — Embarrassingly, I don’t remember what the song was and it is no longer available at the YouTube link I used in 2007. I suspect it was “I Will Remember You“
I’ve probably seen too many sappy romance movies because sometimes I insert a soundtrack to my memories. Here is the song that plays during a memory of meeting up with Tim on a London street – just after I bought a teapot at an outdoor market.
I rarely listen to the radio – even NPR – unless I’m stuck in a car on a long drive with my husband. A couple of years ago we were listening to a radio station somewhere between Maryland and Illinois and a song came on that we both really liked. Radio stations do not always give the name of the song and artist, so I used the search function on my cell phone to search the Internet for the snippet of lyrics I’d memorized: “no white flag above my door”.
The first link on Google took me right to the lyrics of a song by Dido.
Ok. We found a song by Dido. We liked it. The end.
That is not the exciting part!
The word Dido clicked a switch in my mind – it completed a circuit that had been going haywire for a couple of years. See, I’d been searching the Internet in vain for reference to a book about an evil doll that I’d read over and over as a child. I found a website dedicated to finding lost stories, but never found reference to the story I’d read. But now I had a name for the doll. It wsa Dido.
I’d been searching using the terms evil doll. There are a number of stories about evil dolls out there. But search for Dido evil doll and you get a link to a book called a Candle in Her Room by Ruth Arthur. Bingo! I eventually bought the book at a reasonable price – from somewhere – don’t recall where though. My limit was $25 including shipping and handling.
Unfortunately when I read it as an adult, the story fell flat.
