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Thank You for William Goldman
My senior year in high school, I took College English with Father Dibble. He only taught four days a week, and on the fifth day we had a study hall. One day I decided to bring in a book for pleasure, The Princess Bride by William Goldman. The movie is funny, but the book is even funnier. I sat there reading, trying to stifle my giggles. My guffaws. My out-loud laughter.
Each time I burst out, I looked up and caught the eye of Fr. Dibble staring at me. I muttered apologies and slid down in my desk to keep reading. Finally I let out a loud shout of laughter, and Fr. Dibble walked over to me with a stern look on his face and a pad of paper and pen in hand. Leaning over, in a whisper he asked me, “What are you reading? If it is only one-half as funny as you think it is, I want to read it too.”
William Goldman died today. A friend of mine also died today. God bless both of these men for the joy they brought into this world, and the pleasure and laughter they gave to me and so many others. Thank you Lord for both of these men. Thank you Lord for each other.
Published in General
And I just read it again last week. Maybe there are no coincidences.
Thank you, I’ll look for it!
You can get it on Kindle for $2.99.
You’ve just solved one Christmas gift for a friend who absolutely loves The Princess Bride. Thank you, thank you. I’ll probably also get her William Goldman’s book.
Another coincidence…On sale today for Kindle: $2.99! [Happy Dance]
Two of my (adult) stepdaughters love to read The Princess Bride aloud to each other, doing different voices for the characters.
I read most of it out loud to the family on a road trip. It’s on my Kindle so it can come with me everywhere…
I also got a kick out of the author’s suggestion that you could write to him (or his publisher or some such) to get the alternate ending he’d crafted if you weren’t satisfied with it as it was. Just cracked me up.
That’s fantastic.
“Nobody knows anything…… Not one person in the entire motion picture field knows for a certainty what’s going to work. Every time out it’s a guess and, if you’re lucky, an educated one.”
That book is like a moment captured in time for me. Loved so much of his earlier stuff.
My two favorite quotes from Butch Cassidy
Who are those guys?
(on the cliff over the river)
What’s the matter?
I can’t swim.
Are you crazy? The fall will probably kill ya.
“If they would pay me what they are spending to make me stop robbing them, I’d stop robbing them.”
and
“Think you used enough dynamite there, Butch?”
I forgot that one.
It’s hard to believe the same guy wrote both The Princess Bride and Marathon Man.
Yeah, Marathon Man is really not that funny. Gripping, but not really funny at all.
Kind of like how Andrew Klavan is very funny while at the time being a total creepazoid writer who can jump you out of your skin.
I know I’ve read The Princess Bride, but I don’t remember seeing it on my shelf (I never divest myself of books). While I was looking, I thought I’d hit paydirt, but it was The Princess and Curdie.
And read by Mr. Elwes himself! I love his voice. I decide which books to buy in audio format in large part based on who reads them.
A man to be missed, & fondly remembered.
I liked his movies for writing about friendship between men; about noble losers; & being humorous about it. These are times when that’s needed. Goldman got that, about crazy times…
Inigo and Fezzig are a great pairing. I love their backstories.
There are nothing but coincidences.
Now I know why it is my lovely wife’s favorite movie.
We are fortunate to have raised our kids on The Princess Bride, along with a heaping helping of Monty Python. Seldom does a conversation not include a few grace notes.
Daughter #2: Dad, you look tired.
Daughter #1: He’s been mostly dead all day.
Daughter #3 at the local sandwich place: I could go for an MLT.
My favorite, completely unexpected, walking through the grocery store with Daughter #1, we passed the cheese section and she turns to me and says, “Not much of a cheese shop.”
Ours was, “Out of the way, Peck,” from another great movie.
I have previously complained about Romeo & Juliet being the oft-chosen Shakespeare-for-teen-students due to its focus on suicide.
There is no way to know how much it stimulates thoughts of suicide, so I may be way off-base in thinking that it is a mistake to make it the go-to for our nation’s youth.
Nevertheless, there is, in education, a desire to give students a Keanu Reeves-quality ‘whoa’ moment in literature. While I don’t oppose this as such, I believe that trying to serially blow little minds might be as reductive as gritty reboots.
My obit, folks.