The Reluctant Fisherman

Okay, the following is just too weird. Which is saying a lot for The Fisherman, who grew up idolizing drugged-up rockers who bit the heads off bats and drank their blood as part of their stage act.

According to Celebrity Week, David Hasselhoff will star in a musical about his life. Seriously. It’s called, get this: David Hasselhoff: The Musical. According to Celebrity Week, the show will feature sets from Hasselhoff’s career: The Young and the Restless, Knight Rider, Baywatch. The music will be written by Teddy Pendergrass.

Speaking to Celebrity Week, Hassellhoff noted: “It sounds like a bad joke, but it’s really going to be a good show.”

Well, he’s at least half right.

Growing up, I never got into Knight Rider. If I was bored, and here I mean completely, stupendously, the-only-other-outlet-for-my-entertainment-was-professional-wrestling-or-the Home-Shopping-Network bored, I might tune into Baywatch. Just for the plot, of course. The only episode I recollect seeing involved a lifeguard (played by Parker Stevenson) who had come to Robert Frost’s symbolic fork in the road: should he continue working as a lifeguard or should keep his job a lawyer? I don’t know about him, but a very real fear of sharks and about a gazillion dollars in student loans helped me make that decision.

Anyway, Hasselhoff’s musical foray will open in Australia, but he’s hoping it will end up in Vegas (which, by the way, is far too close to The Fisherman’s home to allow for any degree of comfort). From there, who knows? Maybe Broadway. After all, Baywatch did survive for twelve seasons.

Monday, May 8, 2006, will feature a page dedicated to Harper Lee on the parent site. You will find the page in the People section and it will include a personal essay by The Fisherman, excerpts from the only two known interviews with Ms. Lee, a bibliography and a brief biography.

In the meantime, we’ll feature a daily quote from Harper Lee here on this blog.

Erica Jong, author of the 1973 bestseller Fear of Flying (and a host of other books), has written a new book, Seducing the Demon.

What I remember about Fear of Flying, what really sticks in my mind, is a passing comment made in an undergraduate literature class by a professor who was trying to save the world and all its animals (not so worried about the humans, though) by wearing long baggy dresses and not bathing regularly. Her success, as you might imagine, was a bit handicapped by her hygiene choices. Anyway, it wasn’t really a comment. It was more of a word.

And the word was lusty.

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