A toothy tale of holiday, rom-com lust from Tony Isabella & Diego Jourdan Pereira!
Original Vintage Art & Text
Art from the story “The Toast of the ‘Golden Nugget’ ” in Western Love Trails #9, 1950. King Ward might be the artist. To read the entire story and issue, click link.
Transcript:
SCENE: A woman holding a comb with her hands clasped at the side of her face/chin.
CAPTION: The Gift of the Magi 2021
WOMAN (thinking): Henry selling his prized watch to buy me this comb was weirdly cute. I won’t sell my hair to get him a new watch…but I’ll show him a real good time! That’s sort of the same thing.
1950 Art: King Ward? Re-Creation: Diego Jourdan Pereira
Guest Writer: Tony Isabella
DJP.lk46
↓ Transcript
SCENE: A woman holding a comb with her hands clasped at the side of her face/chin.
CAPTION: The Gift of the Magi 2021
WOMAN (thinking): Henry selling his prized watch to buy me this comb was weirdly cute. I won’t sell my hair to get him a new watch...but I’ll show him a real good time! That’s sort of the same thing.
1950 Art: King Ward? Re-Creation: Diego Jourdan Pereira
Guest Writer: Tony Isabella
DJP.lk46
CAPTION: The Gift of the Magi 2021
WOMAN (thinking): Henry selling his prized watch to buy me this comb was weirdly cute. I won’t sell my hair to get him a new watch...but I’ll show him a real good time! That’s sort of the same thing.
1950 Art: King Ward? Re-Creation: Diego Jourdan Pereira
Guest Writer: Tony Isabella
DJP.lk46
“It’s true! I must stop thinking about Jack Van Horne. And yet, each day I seem to think of him more and more…
…I guess you could say I’m more and more Horney as time goes by.”
…Did he really mean what he said about this rash being proof of our love?”
…Mostly about how I hope they never find the body.”
…Which is a problem, because when I think too hard, I start to glow. And then the nuclear reaction kicks in…”
…Which is surprising since his brother was the one I was sleeping with.”
…I guess it’s true what they say: love is a voice that repeats itself over and over in your head, keeping you awake at night and slowly eating you away from the inside, little by little, until the doctor prescribes you pills that numbs it all away.”
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The Toast of the Golden Nugget!
The Scone of the Silver Ingot!
The Biscotti of the Platinum Chunk!
Which grows back faster: hair or a watch?
Asking for all the people who got stuck reading that stupid story.
He just cranked ’em out. Nothing was too insipid for the magazines of the time. Or for the magazines of later decades as well. Paid by the word? Probably not. $25 for a short story? Might be. Maybe less.
The great thing about required reading in school was that his stories were short.
It was still better than “The Scarlet Ibis”, “Anna to the Infinite Power”, or “The Red Pony”.
Jams, you are either way ahead or way behind me. Never even heard of those 3.
Hmmmm….. that was supposed to be a reply. Not sure what happened there.
Guess I should be better read?
I don’t know, I always liked “The Gift of the Magi”. I’m not aware of having read any of the author’s other works, so to the best of my knowledge, I have nothing to compare it to. When I was in high school, I took a lit course, which was taught by the football coach (of all people) who had a penchant for pop quizzes. There were five books in this class and the two that I really remember were “Crime and Punishment” and “Madame Bovary”. DEAR GOD! These were two of THE WORST pieces of drivel that I have EVER been forced to read. For me, at least, “A Gift of the Magi” is a pleasant walk in the park.
Sorry for such a long post, couldn’t think of a way to condense it down.
Cheers Guys!
For what it’s worth (probably less than two cents), I agree with you, PKM.
Admittedly, I haven’t read any O. Henry in decades. But I enjoyed “The Gift of the Magi.” (I’ll admit that–despite the general tone of Last Kiss–I have a pretty wide streak of sentimentality and romance in my makeup.)
And I loved Henry’s “The Ransom of Red Chief.”