Dorothy Parker's Wit

“I don’t know much about being a millionaire, but I bet I’d be darling at it.”

Don’t you love this kind of sparkling wit?  Dorothy Parker was a very interesting character whose wit lives on in our day to day lingo.  She was a poet, author, screenwriter, and critic but despite a very successful career she was a very troubled woman who turned to alcohol and attempted suicide on several occasions.  She also had the dubious honour of making it on to communist blacklist in the 50’s.

            “You can never be too rich or too thin.”  Yes, Dorothy is the culprit who brought us that one.  For all the women in the world who struggle on diets, here’s where you can point your finger!  Dieting is the bane of woman’s existence, challenging us to daily acts of will power that ought to win us a collective Nobel Peace Prize.  With all the willpower that goes into dieting, if we could harness that energy into peace think of what women could accomplish.  The discouragement we face when the dial on the scale doesn’t move, or worse, creeps up even as you have starved yourself and the brave woman grits her teeth dismounts from the scale and says “if I could only have a poo I know I would go down.”

            “Men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses”.  Remember the myopic Marilyn Monroe in “How to Catch a Millionaire” quoting this little number?  Yes, Dorothy again.  Once again think of the anxiety of women who refused to wear glasses and thus did miss out on the passes thrown her way.  We have to be glad that the marketing whores on Rodeo Drive have taken to designing "eyeware" along with every other item lbranded with names Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Donna Karan and other fashion design icons.   

“I don’t care what is written about me as long as it isn’t true.”  Now this is brilliant because who can really say they don’t care?  But think about it, as my old boss used to say, and I paraphrase, “if you aren’t stepping on toes, you aren’t doing much”.  I certain type of person can become very jealous of one who works hard even without much financial success.  I’ve noticed that not just with myself but with other people also.  It’s sad because it must be really draining for that person. 

In her will Dorothy decreed her epitaph. 

Excuse my dust.