Comments on: Nock-Off http://www.amconmag.com/mccarthy/2008/08/21/nock-off/ www.ToryAnarchist.com Fri, 12 Mar 2010 06:27:06 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Scott Lahti http://www.amconmag.com/mccarthy/2008/08/21/nock-off/comment-page-1/#comment-1296 Scott Lahti Wed, 27 Aug 2008 01:42:04 +0000 http://toryanarchist.com/?p=749#comment-1296 Regular contributor, National Review, The American Spectator, &c., 1970s-early 1980s, from which grew the two books mentioned above: http://tinyurl.com/5n2qvn Regular contributor, National Review, The American Spectator, &c., 1970s-early 1980s, from which grew the two books mentioned above:

http://tinyurl.com/5n2qvn

]]> By: TGGP http://www.amconmag.com/mccarthy/2008/08/21/nock-off/comment-page-1/#comment-1295 TGGP Wed, 27 Aug 2008 01:13:52 +0000 http://toryanarchist.com/?p=749#comment-1295 Mitchell? Who's he? Mitchell? Who’s he?

]]> By: Scott Lahti http://www.amconmag.com/mccarthy/2008/08/21/nock-off/comment-page-1/#comment-1294 Scott Lahti Tue, 26 Aug 2008 11:38:45 +0000 http://toryanarchist.com/?p=749#comment-1294 TGGP, take the title of your 8-22 post at EtaO, and replace "Jack" with a first name rhyming with the second word in "one stitch'll close that wound". Bingo. TGGP, take the title of your 8-22 post at EtaO, and replace “Jack” with a first name rhyming with the second word in “one stitch’ll close that wound”.

Bingo.

]]> By: TGGP http://www.amconmag.com/mccarthy/2008/08/21/nock-off/comment-page-1/#comment-1297 TGGP Tue, 26 Aug 2008 04:46:14 +0000 http://toryanarchist.com/?p=749#comment-1297 When I first saw the M and R I though it was going to be Murray Rothbard. When I first saw the M and R I though it was going to be Murray Rothbard.

]]> By: Scott Lahti http://www.amconmag.com/mccarthy/2008/08/21/nock-off/comment-page-1/#comment-1298 Scott Lahti Fri, 22 Aug 2008 08:22:47 +0000 http://toryanarchist.com/?p=749#comment-1298 You make me wish I'd saved a classic letter forwarded me during my brief spell as a two-time National Review freelancer over two decades ago. Shortly after my essay "The Fourteenth Colony" appeared in the Christmas 1986 issue, I had a phone call with Chilton Williamson, Jr., the magazine's editor of its "Books, Arts and Manners" section. "Oh, by the way," he warned me, "You'll be getting a letter forwarded from the office - don't worry, anybody who writes ends up with a wall of them at some point. Whatever you do, DON'T RESPOND TO IT. It's from M_______ R___, a former writer of ours, who went a bit crazy around age 30; he sent back one of Bill's [founder/editor William F. Buckley, Jr. - DSL.] standard begging letters with the suggestion he stick it up his rich Catholic ass, &c. Last I heard, he was living with his dad near Detroit, and drinking, &c." The letter arrived shortly. Happily, I have detailed memory, and quote with c. 95% accuracy: "Mr. Lahti: "You write in your article, 'Figures like Nock and Mencken no longer appear in our periodicals, nor do the styles of literacy and breadth of culture they represented...' "This does me a grave injustice. I have, after all, written a number of significant articles and essays as their heir. "This is in addition to my books, which, thanks to the widespread silent treatment your article perpetuates, are now officially out-of-print. "I have, however, a stock of my books available at the bargain price of $5 each postpaid, and invite you to order from the enclosed flyer. [the photocopied page enclosed featured him with cigar jauntily clenched in teeth, ad copy at once dandyish and defiant, and blurbs from, among others, "Bill" himself at his penny-dandiest] "And I would invite you to write no more articles along the lines of 'The Fourteenth Colony', which fai to give me credit for what I have already accomplished. "Yours, M_______ S. R___" I seem to have tossed the letter and flyer at some point, though their author proved effective after all, in one regard: due entirely to my own indifferent sloth, I never wrote for National Review again. Those curious over how I triggered this self-signified Son of Nock and Mencken to such Elmered beFuddlement, Sylvestrine suffering, and claims of anti-YosemitiSam, may skim at leisure - http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+fourteenth+colony-a04588745 "And I would suggest they read no more such articles in future, which fail to trigger as many memorable poison-pen letters as I might have hoped." You make me wish I’d saved a classic letter forwarded me during my brief spell as a two-time National Review freelancer over two decades ago.

Shortly after my essay “The Fourteenth Colony” appeared in the Christmas 1986 issue, I had a phone call with Chilton Williamson, Jr., the magazine’s editor of its “Books, Arts and Manners” section.

“Oh, by the way,” he warned me, “You’ll be getting a letter forwarded from the office – don’t worry, anybody who writes ends up with a wall of them at some point. Whatever you do, DON’T RESPOND TO IT. It’s from M_______ R___, a former writer of ours, who went a bit crazy around age 30; he sent back one of Bill’s [founder/editor William F. Buckley, Jr. - DSL.] standard begging letters with the suggestion he stick it up his rich Catholic ass, &c. Last I heard, he was living with his dad near Detroit, and drinking, &c.”

The letter arrived shortly. Happily, I have detailed memory, and quote with c. 95% accuracy:

“Mr. Lahti:

“You write in your article, ‘Figures like Nock and Mencken no longer appear in our periodicals, nor do the styles of literacy and breadth of culture they represented…’

“This does me a grave injustice. I have, after all, written a number of significant articles and essays as their heir.

“This is in addition to my books, which, thanks to the widespread silent treatment your article perpetuates, are now officially out-of-print.

“I have, however, a stock of my books available at the bargain price of $5 each postpaid, and invite you to order from the enclosed flyer.

[the photocopied page enclosed featured him with cigar jauntily clenched in teeth, ad copy at once dandyish and defiant, and blurbs from, among others, "Bill" himself at his penny-dandiest]

“And I would invite you to write no more articles along the lines of ‘The Fourteenth Colony’, which fai to give me credit for what I have already accomplished.

“Yours,

M_______ S. R___”

I seem to have tossed the letter and flyer at some point, though their author proved effective after all, in one regard: due entirely to my own indifferent sloth, I never wrote for National Review again. Those curious over how I triggered this self-signified Son of Nock and Mencken to such Elmered beFuddlement, Sylvestrine suffering, and claims of anti-YosemitiSam, may skim at leisure -

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+fourteenth+colony-a04588745

“And I would suggest they read no more such articles in future, which fail to trigger as many memorable poison-pen letters as I might have hoped.”

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