{"id":111638,"date":"2022-04-26T17:56:15","date_gmt":"2022-04-26T23:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=111638"},"modified":"2022-04-26T17:57:55","modified_gmt":"2022-04-26T23:57:55","slug":"doctor-curmudgeon-ohto-have-had-a-seat-at-that-table","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=111638","title":{"rendered":"Doctor Curmudgeon\u00ae Oh\u2026To Have Had a Seat at That Table!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1545664804358300\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block; text-align: center;\" data-ad-layout=\"in-article\" data-ad-format=\"fluid\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1545664804358300\" data-ad-slot=\"8616314829\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=111638\" rel=\"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=111638\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-111639 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/screenshot-2015-06-16-15-31-56-300x199.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/screenshot-2015-06-16-15-31-56-300x199.png 300w, https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/screenshot-2015-06-16-15-31-56.png 730w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>By Diane Batshaw Eisman, M.D. FAAP Doctor Eisman, is in Family Practice in Aventura, Florida with her partner, Dr. Eugene Eisman, an internist\/cardiologist<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It began its ten year life as a prank.<\/p>\n<p>Back in 1919, John Peter Toohey was a theatrical press agent. Eugene O\u2019Neill was an American playwright, and a Nobel Laureate in Literature who managed to gather a few Pulitzer Prizes along the way. No slouch!<\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Neill was a client of Toohey\u2019s. Alexander Woollcott who was the drama critic for the New York Times refused to promote O\u2019Neill.<\/p>\n<p>Toohey sought revenge!<\/p>\n<p>And so he arranged a luncheon in honor of Woollcott, supposedly to welcome him back from World War I (Woollcott had been stationed overseas as a correspondent for Stars and Stripes).<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>He gathered together some of the sharpest, wittiest New Yorkers. These were the actors, critics, and writers of the time who were known for their clever and often acerbic repartee. Toohey\u2019s intention was to make fun of Alexander Woollcott\u2026to \u201croast\u201d him.<\/p>\n<p>The practical joke backfired. Woollcott loved the gathering. He was delighted to be the subject of sharp tongued, humorous ribbing. In fact, it was Woollcott who proposed meeting regularly for lunch at the Algonquin Hotel<\/p>\n<p>And so, in June, 1919, the Algonquin Round Table was born. Eventually, the group named themselves \u201cThe Vicious Circle.\u201d They continued meeting for ten years; cracking jokes, usually at the expense of one of their members; pulling pranks on each other; jousting verbally, playing word games; and, of course, eating and drinking.<\/p>\n<p>Who assembled at this ferociously witty table?<\/p>\n<p>The list of those who came and went is long, but a few of the attendees were:<\/p>\n<p>Robert E. Sherwood, playwright who won four Pulitzers and an Oscar for writing The Best Years of Our Lives.<\/p>\n<p>Robert Benchley, managing editor of Vanity Fair and famous humorist<\/p>\n<p>Edna Ferber, Pulitzer Prize winning novelist and playwright.<\/p>\n<p>Harpo Marx, musician, actor and comedian.<\/p>\n<p>Dorothy Parker, drama critic for Vanity Fair and the New Yorker, poet, playwright and a fighter for social justice.<\/p>\n<p>Ruth Hale, a war correspondent, and a champion of women\u2019s equality. She even sued the U.S. Date Department in order to have her passport issued in her own name, not as the wife of her husband.<\/p>\n<p>Tallulah Bankhead, actress, and all-around wit.<\/p>\n<p>George S. Kaufman, winner of two Pulitzers, playwright, producer director, actor.<\/p>\n<p>The Algonquin Round Table or The Vicious Circle generated brilliant, witty, and often acerbic quotes:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you wear a short enough skirt the party will come to you.\u201d &#8211;Dorothy Parker<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy heart is pure as the driven slush.\u201d \u2013Tallulah Bankhead<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEpitaph for a dead waiter \u2013G-D finally caught his eye,\u201d \u2013 George S. Kaufman<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn\u2019t give it up because by that time I was too famous.\u201d \u2013Robert Benchley<\/p>\n<p>And my personal favorite quote comes from the man who started it all:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll the things I really like to do are immoral, illegal or fattening.\u201d\u2014Alexander Woollcott.<\/p>\n<p>To quote President John F. Kennedy, \u201cWhen I was growing up I had three wishes. I wanted to be a Lindbergh-type hero, learn Chinese, and become a member of the Algonquin Round Table.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Curmudgeon suggests &#8220;Bitter Medicine\u201d, Dr. Eugene Eisman&#8217;s story of his experiences&#8211;from the humorous to the intense&#8212;as a young army doctor serving in the Vietnam War.<\/p>\n<p>Bitter Medicine by Eugene H. Eisman, M.D. &#8211;on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Bitter-Medicine-Doctors-Year-Vietnam\/dp\/0615874347\">Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Doctor Curmudgeon\u00ae is Diane Batshaw Eisman, M.D., a physician-satirist. This column originally appeared on SERMO, the leading global social network for doctors.<\/p>\n<p>SERMO <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sermo.com\">www.sermo.com<\/a> \u201ctalk real world medicine\u201d<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Diane Batshaw Eisman, M.D. FAAP Doctor Eisman, is in Family Practice in Aventura, Florida with her partner, Dr. Eugene Eisman, an internist\/cardiologist It began its ten year life as a prank. Back in 1919, John Peter Toohey was a theatrical press agent. Eugene O\u2019Neill was an American playwright, and a Nobel Laureate in Literature [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":111639,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[28662],"class_list":["post-111638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-boxing-news","tag-doctor-curmudgeon-ohto-have-had-a-seat-at-that-table"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=111638"}],"version-history":[{"count":-3,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/111639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=111638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=111638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=111638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}