Wayne's Words

I didn't realize so much time had gone by since the last posting. Sorry, but I was kind of busy, what with writing about the Pulitzer prizes and a phenomenon called, uh, blogging, for my day job. Too much research, not enough participation! Speaking of exclamation points, one almost never uses them in newspaper writing or even semi-serious criticism...unless one is quoting Phil Rizzuto ("holy cow!") or some other spiritual guide, like Robin of the "Batman" TV show, who would say things to his mentor like, "holy crustaceans, Batman! That's some lobster you're eating!" Batman, of course, was the secret identity of Bruce Wayne, solitary millionaire philanthropist. I find it amusing that in some search engines, when I type in my name to go through my random back pages, Wayne Robins inevitably brings up some references to Bruce Wayne and Robin. I'm not Batman. Nor am I the Wayne Robins who is a body-building champion in Canada, or the W.R. who is or was a member of Parliament in Australia or New Zealand though I sometimes get e-mail for him in my default Hotmail account. Once I got an invitation to a dinner party in Melbourne or Sydney meant for that W.R. I sent my regrets, pointing out that I lived in New York, but was grateful to be thought of. The sender never replied, which I thought both odd and impolite. Perhaps the Jane Smith I thought I was replying to in Australia actually lived in Sarasota, Florida, and had no idea what I was talking about.