“Real-life man and wife, mother and father battles
rarely even remotely resemble the Theatrical or Fictional version of the
Struggle between the Sexes. Homes have been wracked by strife and dissension
because of a basic difference of opinion over where to go on a vacation, or
what kind of car to buy, or a toaster that made funny noises, or a
sister-in-law’s false teeth, not to mention who is going to take out the
garbage. And why.
“In all my experience I have never known homes that
had the kind of fights that appear in plays by Edward Albee and Tennessee
Williams. It would never have occurred to my father to bellow dramatically in
the living room, after twenty-seven Scotches: ‘You bitch! You’re not going to
emasculate me!’
“The Old Man would not have even known what the word
‘emasculate’ meant, much less figure that that’s what my mother was up to.”—American
humorist, radio and TV personality, and writer and actor Jean Shepherd
(1921-1999), “My Old Man and the Lascivious Special Award That Heralded the
Birth of Pop Art,” in In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash (1966)
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