Quote of the Night- Dashiell Hammett

The subject of today's quote, the last in our series of quips from American writers, comes from the mystery noir pulp writer Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961), whose name is all too easy to spell incorrectly.

Here are some quick facts about the writer:

_Famous for detective/mystery novels including "The Maltese Falcon" (1930, later immortalized in a Humphrey Bogart film of the same name), "The Glass Key" (1931) and "The Thin Man" (1934).

_Had a 30-year relationship with playwright Lillian Hellman

_Along with Hellman and countless other creative people, Hammett was blacklisted as part of a witch hunt by HUAC in the early 1950s, when anti-communism paranoid ran deep in America.

_Played by actor Jason Robards in the film "Julia" (1933), Jane Fonda played Hellman in the same film.

_Is buried at Arlington National Cemetery for serving in both World Wars.

Here is his quote:

"Feed the lettuce to the bunny and eat the bunny."

Quote of the Week- Lillian Hellman

Today, we continue quoting figures who were either socialists or communists this month since May 1 is associated with Marxism. Though I'm not one myself, I consider Marxists to be a bit more intellectually sound than the radical Chicken Little evangelists who are forecasting mushroom clouds on Saturday.

And, we turn our attention to the great playwright Lillian Hellman (1905-1984) who is best known for three plays in particular, "The Children's Hour" (1934), "The Little Foxes" (1939) and "Toys in the Attic" (1960).

According to Wikipedia, Hellman was blacklisted because her long-time lover the noir novelist Dashiel Hammett was a communist and because Hellman also refused to name names.

Here is her quote:

"Belief is a moral act for which the believer has to be held responsible."

SIDEBAR: I must profess that I could not agree with my friend Chris Knight in Reidsville, NC, who tweeted the following today: "Call me old-fashioned, but if a man can't be trustworthy with his wife, he can't be trusted with elected office." I think Knight was eluding to a certain actor/body-builder who became the governor of California, but it did remind me of current Republican presidential candidate newt Gingrich.

A former congressional rep from New York put in the former house speaker in his rightful place by saying: "Newt will be knocked off his message more times for his own actions than by others."

SIDEBAR TWO: Since there are times when I can be a bit overbearing around others, I was wondering if there was a term for a male diva. And, according to the Urban Dictionary, there is. We are divos. But, we should not be confused with people who can be called devo, though we love the '80s New Wave band Devo. That term refers to male divas are possibly homosexual or meterosexual!