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Artichoke | Oct 02 2003

Jack Haskell

Jack Haskell: really good writer (photo by Mark Boyer/Shoot Digital)

I’m reading a new story this Sunday at the Bowery Poetry Club, so if you’re in town this weekend, please come. The story is called Sentence, I think, and it’s almost done. Right now I’m convinced it’s either a work of genius or simply not very good. In either case, my co-reader Jack Haskell is certain to amaze and delight.

As part of my research for the story, I just read synopses of all 254 episodes of Bewitched, none of which helped solve the problem I’m having. The experience was redeemed, however, by a passing reference to something Samantha says in episode #3, “Mother Meets What’s-His-Name.”

Endora threatens to turn Darrin into an artichoke. Later Samantha expresses her love for Darrin by announcing that if Endora had done so, she would also have turned herself into an artichoke.

There you have it: Love means being willing to turn yourself into an artichoke.