Saturday, April 5, 2008

Occupational Hazard

Once again, I am obsessed with the literature I am teaching.

I just finished The Great Gatsby and am intrigued by one of the characters, Meyer Wolfsheim. He is one of Gatsby's more questionable associates, accused of "fixing" the 1919 World Series. The intriguing thing about him is that he is Jewish, but he wears cuff-links made of human molars and owns "The Swastika Holding Company." HUH?? So now I am obsessed. Were there Jews who had Nazi ties post-World War I??

Scott had no information for me, so I took the logical next step. I E-mailed a Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist, who used to work with my students at my high school, because he wrote an article that came up in my Google search. We used to be friends, but I haven't seen him for years. He'll probably think I'm nuts. He'll probably be right.

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