published in The Widow magazine, fall 1975
Following the publication of Schildtkraut in Epoch, the editor of The Widow, Cornell’s humor magazine, called me and asked if I had anything else. I sent him Berlinsky for their fall ’75 issue. I recently reread it for the first time in close to 30 years, and discovered that several of its ideas reappear in Minyan .
Both works, for example, make mention of those little hotdogs wrapped in dough that were a favorite hors d’oeuvre at the Jewish celebrations of my youth. I only recently discovered that this is what Gentiles call “pigs in blankets.”
And certainly the voice is very similar. It may well be the only fiction voice I have. Also, what seemed a clever and original idea back then — the idea of personalized birthday cards — is now a common sight at Hallmark.
