The lunch that we should have had

Abstract

The lunch that we should have had John Miles was put off twice. Stevens had to go to Floridato deal with urgent claims. Eventually we held itat the Hartford Canoe Club, where it set us backtwo-fifty a head. Wallace lunched there on Wednesdayson cold roast beef. He brought along two guests:Charles Ives and Ben Lee Whorf. All three of themwere insurance men. I guess it was one of those timeswe had fifty dollars on who could make the mostgoddamnawful noise on the piano in the Members' Lounge.Wallace sat down with Ives and they improvisedin ragtime on O What a Friend We Have in Jesus.It brought the house down. Then Whorf started singingsome nonsense syllables out of a book he was writing.Ever do barbershop? He led us off with "squonk,""mome raths" and "Glub." Glub, sang Wallace, I give youthe man of glubbal glub. Ben, what was thatyou said about how Denmark looks in Danish?Ives wrote the duet down later and published itas a piano sonata. That's just the kind of thingthese guys would do for a bet. Some Wednesdays Wallacemight seem reserved. He wasn't always clubbable,but that day everyone was more or less glubbable. [End Page 279] John Miles Castle Hill, New South Wales, Australia Copyright © 2011 The Johns Hopkins University Press