Monday, January 26, 2009



"I am sorry for all men,"
   she said.
"But the others I am sorry for
   and send away.
You I am sorry for
   and I let you come.
That's how I know
   I love you."

Eric Knight
You Play the Black
    and the Red Comes Up
1938

Monday, January 19, 2009



He told about all the women
what he had knowed,
and all the saloons he'd been in,
and some of it was a lie,
'cause if all those saloons
was as swell as he said they was
they'd of throwed him out.

James M. Cain
"Pastorale"
1928

Monday, January 12, 2009


She may 
be a
feminist,
my boy,
but she has
startling
lapses.

John Dickson Carr
The Three Coffins
1935

Monday, January 5, 2009



The night was like purple ink.
And it was as though the bottle
that held the ink
had been smashed against the sky
by some insurgent celestial accountant.
For heaven was pitted with its tiny,
twinkling particles of broken glass.
And there seemed to be no one
there to sweep them up.
God's office was closed for the night.

Cornell Woolrich
Fright
1950