A Place in the Phone Book
The new phone book's here! The new phone book's here! *
Yesterday, I picked up the new phone book, and, for the first time in years, opened it up to locate my name and address. That's because, for the first time in a long time, I live in a new place. One that's thousands of miles from my last home, and from the place where I grew up.
Page 73 - Johnson, Navin R.! I'm somebody now!
I've started a new life practically from scratch, with a new career, new friends and new relationships.
Millions of people look at this book everyday! This is the kind of spontaneous publicity - your name in print - that makes people. By coincidence, last night I stumbled across a televised conference on C-SPAN, featuring my first boss in Washington, DC. He is a former federal agency chief. He looked very distinguished with his dark suit and grey hair, but his words, full of legalisms, were a foreign language that I no longer understood. I didn't want to understand them. They were dry, passionless, boring.I'm in print! Things are going to start happening to me now.
They already have.
*Quotations in italics from Steve Martin as Navin Johnson in The Jerk (1979).
posted by media concepts @ 11:07 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
I hate to burst your bubble, but most people do not read phone books. In fact, most people no longer even use phone books. How many times did you look at a phone book to get a number during the past month? I think it was maybe once for me.
Fortunately your new life seems to have been jump-started before this latest publication.
Hmm, have you never seen the movie The Jerk? What you're talking about is the big joke behind that entire scene. The whole movie is like that, making fun of Navin's extreme naivete due to his highly sheltered life. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it.
The Jerk is one of the best movies ever. Steve Martin's highpoint.
By the way, I heard that Steve Martin is good friends with a certain art collector that we both know.
Yeah, I heard that too. It makes sense, since Steve Martin is apparently a big-time art collector. Regardless, I have seen The Jerk about 15 times, and any time I happen upon it on cable, I'm pretty much hooked again. Are you the one who uses it as a test for whether you'll date a woman, i.e., she must be a fan of the movie? That sounds like a good litmus test to me.
you on print! good. i will be awaiting the book (or is it magazine? just curious).
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