Of Arms and a Couple or Three Women He Sings

Link to this and scroll down, and you will see My Student George belting out a song, probably one that he wrote, probably one about one of his failed romances. Writers need a full-range of human experience, I told George. (Ladies must beware the artist unless they are artists, too, in which case it's Katy bar the door.) As a student, George always threw himself into his research. Beware the perfectionist exploring the imperfections of love, eager to drink some honeydew, get next to some of that milk of paradise.

I enjoy those discussions about what forms of self expression great writers would choose if they were alive today. People always say Shakespeare would have written for television, Pope would have been a jockey and lived (and married) large. Homer would have played blindfold chess. I hope Chatterton would have gotten food stamps. (How many poets will Schwarzenegger's policies kill?)

Would Dante have fronted a rock band? Would Beatrice have pierced her belly button? Actually, I think Dante would have been a guide at Disneyland.

Play the game backwards, and I imagine the role Rush Limbaugh would have played as a member of The Greatest Generation.