DDR: Twenty-Two Stories by J.D. Salinger

Day 1 (DDRD 3,234) September 10, 2026

Read to page 43.

I was tempted to continue reading Hungarian Stuff, but this arrived in the mail and that was that.

J.D. Salinger published one novel and 35 short stories. 13 of those short stories were collected in book form. The other 22 were Out There for the intrepid reader, but were not easy to find. When I was 18 and attending Catonsville Community College in Baltimore, I found a couple of those stories on microfilm, and spent quite a few hours copying them by hand.  I still have them around here somewhere. Later on in life, I started tracking down the original publications and xeroxing copies of the stories. I'm pretty sure that I ended up finding all of them, but I have no idea where those are now. I'm not really a thrower-outer, so I probably still possess them, but it would take Heinrich Schliemann and his friends to unearth them.

Enter 

296 pages of teeny tiny print. I've read some of these previously, but I'm really anxious to one fell swoop this. 

1. "The Young Folks": A girl talks to a guy at a party. Mostly dialogue.  👎 

2. "Go See Eddie": an abusive brother orders his sister to go see Eddie. Mostly dialogue.  👎

3. "The Hang of It": a young soldier fucks up. Mostly dialogue. 👎

4. "The Heart of aBroken Story": a young guy fantasizes about a pretty girl he sees on the bus. Mostly narration and letters. 👎

5. "The Long Debut of Lous Taggett": a girl marries an abusive husband. They divorce. She marries again--a nice man. They have a baby. The baby smothers in its crib. Mostly narration. 👎

So...none of these first 5 stories were very good at all, and I can understand why Salinger didn't want them to be collected. 

P.S. Read one more: 

6. "Personal Notes of an Infantryman": very short...which is a blessing. Terrible story with a confusing ending.  👎 👎

Day 2 (DDRD 3,235) September 11, 2026

Read to page 84.

You know, I really want to read all of these stories, and my love for J. D. Salinger's writers is undiminished, but (1) six bad stories in a row and (2) I've been reading Ghost-Eye on the side, and it is excellent and I want to spend more time reading it.

7. "The Varioni Brothers": at last...a decent story. Not great, mind you, but at least decent. A songwriting brother duo finds success at the expense of the lyricist's novel writing. 👌

8. "Both Parties Concerned": not as good as "The Varioni Brothers," but almost. A small story about a young couple who have a fight. The narrator had Holden Caulfield's voice...a bit too much of it, actually.  👌-ish.

9. "Soft-Boiled Sergeant": a really bad title for a pretty good story about a flint-faced but kind-hearted soldier. And another Holden-kind of narrator.  👌

10. " The Last Day of the Last Furlough ": a very touching story about two young men who will be going off to war in the morning. One of the two, one is Vincent Caulfield, whose younger brother, Holden, is missing in action. Which doesn't fit with the Holden we know from The Catcher in the Rye, but some other stuff, like getting kicked out of school, does. So that was a thrill. 👍

DDR: The Adventures of John Háry Hungarian Hussar by István Tamás

 

I've known about this István Tamás book for quite awhile, but the only copy I could find was listed on eBay for $50. 

And despite my great love for István Tamás, that was just too much for me. 

But this year my big sister (who is literally a rocket scientist) sent me a big Big check for my birthday, and I decided to buy stuff that was beyond my usual limit.

It arrived yesterday, just as I finished István's Sergeant Nikola. That has to be a sign, right?

A mere 114 pages...and lots of illustrations...so i dont think will take long.

Let's see.

Day 1 (DDRD 3,233) September 9, 2026

Read to page 114. Yep.

87 year old book given as a Christmas present 79 years ago. Yowza.

And our survey says...it wasn't available very good book, I'm sorry to say. And not because it was a children's book. Because it wasn't a good children's book. (Though the illustrations were amusing.)

The last page broke my little heart, though:

There's another one Out There. 

And I can't find it.

😔 

Stoned Thought #19

 

I finally understand why people watch college football: sometimes the NFL isn't there when you need it.

133

While I was driving my daughter back to her apartment, my youngest son called me. He'd been bowling. I asked him how he'd done, and he said, "Good." Normally I'd have left it at that, but since we have to get a couple of more scores in to qualify for the Special Olympics regionals, I asked him what his score was. He said, "133." As he said it I looked to my right and saw a sign hanging above the breakdown lane that said Something Something 133. I did a double-take. Yep, 133. And then the sign was behind me. I wish that I'd had time to get a picture, but hey, my word is my bond.

DDR: The Siege of Sziget by Miklós Zrinyi Translated by Laszlo Korossy

Is this what I'm about to read? A xxv + 267 ( = 292) page poem about the 33 day siege of the Fortress of Szigetvár by an overwhelming Ottoman army?

...I think so.

I think so.

Day 1 (DDRD 3,228) September 4, 2026

Read to page 23 (End of Part One...of Fifteen Parts).

This is quite a change from Sergeant Nilola, for sure. An epic poem about the Persian attack on a Hungarian fortress. And you'll never guess who started the fight. 

God. 

God was upset with the Hungarians because they had fallen away from Him. So He sent one of his angels to hell to get a demon to go to the Turkish leader to tell him to attack the Hungarians. Kind of a mean take on God, but conversant with the Old Testament.

Not sure about this yet, but I think the reading will go pretty quickly. 🤞

Here's a zinger against the Hungarians / Magyars: "Until they see their own house on fire,  / They do not help the houses of their neighbors." (ll. 44-45)

Kind of sums up us as well, doesn't it?

Day 2 (DDRD 3,229) September 5, 2026

Read to page 86 (end of Part Five).

I thought this was interesting: when Mehmet goes after one of the Hungarian soldiers, having seen that his son had been wounded, Zrinyi makes this comparison: "As when a wild tiger sees her club die, / Both the hunter's net and herself she thrashes." (Part 3, ll. 82-83) Zrinyi goes out of his way to compare the Hungarian soldier to a lioness.  This strikes me as the opposite of misogyny.

And speaking of misogyny here is a question for every Republican member of Congress: "Is it not better to die as a man, / Than to live in shame before the eyes of all?" (ll. 92-93)

Btw: the lioness soldier is Zrinyi, great grandpa to the poet. Warrior Zrinyi also spares the life of one of the Turks, saying that that warrior had fought with great distinction and that for that reason he didn't want to kill him. Interesting perspective.

I've got to say...for a 500 year-old poem about a battle I have never heard of before, this is pretty good stuff.

Now I'm going to read some more.

I AI-ed this close-up a bit...removed some figures for charity's sake...but it's quite arresting, isn't it? T-shirt time, baby.

As a certifiable old man who doesn't have a whole lot of years left on this planet, these lines struck me forcefully: "I have faith that not long this tired-of body / I will leave here, and we will see each other in heaven." (ll. 36-37)

I tell Jacqueline and Joe this regularly. In one of my prayers (yes, I know) I say, "Let them know that they can talk to me anytime they want to, even beyond the limits of this life, and be certain that we will be reunited in the world to come." I want them to feel that my love for them transcends this existence, and that they will never be alone.

Yet another thing the parents of special needs children have to think about regularly: how to console their children about their deaths.

 🤔 

And get this: the warrior who was captured is invited to a victory celebration at the Hungarian castle. There he is told that he is not a captive, but an honored guest. When the Turk offers a huge amount of money for his ransom, Zrinyi replies that he doesn't need the money. He then agrees to exchange the captured Turk for a captured Hungarian warrior of no particular distinction (so far as I can tell).

Who ARE these guys?

Most confusing of all, though: after the battle the Hungarians went to the church and thanked God for their victory. They regularly refer to God's help and thank and praise Him, and yet this whole battle was initiated by and sustained by that God. What the fuck?

Just in case you need to know, there's an opera based on this battle, which you can watch HERE.

There are no English sub-titles, but it's still worth a couple of hours if you have the time.

P.S. Read to page 112. Yowza...that's 89 pages. Kinda makes me want to read 11 more.

P.P.S. Read 17 more, to page 129.

Yep.

Day 3 (DDRD 3,230) September 6, 2026

Read to page 193. 

Two Hungarian soldiers leave the castle and cut through the drunk & sleeping Turks, killing as they go. Eventually they are caught and killed. Then the spirit  / ghost of one of the slain Magyars appears to Deli Vid back in the castle and tells him how he died. Interesting. 

"Authority and mercy are all worthless, / If honor and fear are not the pillars." (Part 11, ll. 18-19)

Day 4 (DDRD 3,231) September 7, 2026

Read to page 235. Hmmm. I'm pretty sure I could finish this off tonight, but it's been a loooong day, so...we'll see.

Day 5 (DDRD 3,232) September 8, 2026

Read to page 267, The End.  And quite a nice little canter it was. The Grand Finale, with God speaking and an army of angels coming down to help the Hungarians, really demands to be put into a movie or an opera or a movie of an opera. Maybe Christopher Nolan neefs a new project?

"This day and this hour is my entire life, / It is polished by my noble actions." (Part 15 ll. 80-81)

"Sheer plod makes plough down sillion shine."