The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy

Share this post

Topical Guide 120

peterleroy.substack.com
A Topical Guide to the Personal History

Topical Guide 120

Mark Dorset

Eric Kraft
Oct 28, 2021
Share
Share this post

Topical Guide 120

peterleroy.substack.com
pershistitlesmall.jpg

Work: Working at Cross-Purposes

     I made the decision in an instant. The way to be sure of winding up where Matthew wound up was to answer as Matthew would. I pulled a long face. “It would be nice if this story had a happy ending,” I said. Mr. Grundtvig began writing at once. “But it will not. I mean, in a way, we’re all like the man in the rowboat—tired, confused, miserable—” …
     “I sat there, looking at Mr. Grundtvig,” said Matthew, … “and I said to myself, ‘This is it. Everything depends on this.’ … Grundtvig began tapping his pencil on his pad and he looked up at me. As soon as he looked at me, I knew what to do. I gave him the kind of story you would give him! …
     I sat looking at Matthew, who went on with his story, filling in the details, laughing, and pounding the table with his hand. My heart sank. The more he elaborated on the story, the surer I became that we would be going our separate ways. I couldn’t bring myself to tell Matthew what I had done.

Little Follies, “The Fox and the Clam”

at cross-purposes
in a way that causes confusion or failure because people are working or talking with different goals or purposes

Merriam-Webster online dictionary

“You attend to your work, and I’ll attend to mine.”

Oliver Hardy to Stan Laurel in Dirty Work (1933)

[more to come on Friday, October 29, 2021]

Have you missed an episode or two or several?

  • You can catch up by visiting the archive or consulting the index to the Topical Guide.

  • You can listen to the episodes on the Personal History podcast. Begin at the beginning or scroll through the episodes to find what you’ve missed.

  • At Apple Books you can download free eBooks of “My Mother Takes a Tumble,” “Do Clams Bite?,” “Life on the Bolotomy,” and “The Static of the Spheres,” the first four novellas in Little Follies.

  • You’ll find an overview of the entire work in  An Introduction to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy. It’s a pdf document.

Share The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy

The serialization of The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy is supported by its readers. I sometimes earn affiliate fees when you click through the affiliate links in a post. EK
The illustration in the banner that opens each episode is from an illustration by Stewart Rouse that first appeared on the cover of the August 1931 issue of Modern Mechanics and Inventions.
www.erickraft.com
www.babbingtonpress.com

Share
Share this post

Topical Guide 120

peterleroy.substack.com
Previous
Next
Comments
Top
New
Community

No posts

Ready for more?

© 2023 Eric Kraft
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start WritingGet the app
Substack is the home for great writing