Coincidence Again

About four months ago I went on a stag weekend, and  took a long train journey and a book to pass the time.

The book was I Shouldn’t Even Be Doing This by comedian Bob Newhart. It was new out at the time and I was annoyed when I lost it when I changed trains from Chichester to Southampton.

I was halfway through and was reluctant to replace the book, so I made a mental note to replace it when it came out in paperback.

I added the book to a list of titles I would buy next time I was out browsing for books, which turned out to be while I was in New York last week.

I bought a few books:

What Is The What by Dave Eggers
How We Are Hungry by the same
The Red Badge Of Courage by Steven Crane
and
I Shouldn’t Even Be Doing This by Bob Newhart

I bought the replacement in paperback, and I started reading that first since I was already halfway through.

I walked with it back up 8th Avenue past the Port Authority Bus Terminal, where I noticed a statue of Jackie Gleason, set some ways back off the pavewalks/sideways, up to 48th Street, where I was going to pick up the book where I left off, 3500 miles, two train rides, a car trip, two taxi rides and a 747 later.

In the first brief sitting of reading the book, Bob Newhart said there is a statue of him as his tv persona, Dr. Bob Hartley, at the entrance to Navy Pier in Chicago. He says:

“It’s one in a series placed around the country by TV Land, along with Mary Tyler Moore in Minneapolis, Audry Griffith in Mt. Airy, North Carolina, and Jakie Gleason in a New York City bus terminal.”