rotation of dinner, they end up living comfortable lives with wild parties and girls rushing in, people bringing bottles, all at about a minimum of seven dollars a week say—It’s a wonderful place but at the same time a little maddening, in fact a whole lot maddening because the painter Lanny Meadows loves music and has installed his Hi Fi speaker in the kitchen altho he applies the records in a back room so the daily cook may be concentrating on his Mulligan stew and all of a sudden Stravinski’s dinosaurs start dinning overheard—And at night there are bottlecrashing parties usually supervised by wild Pascal who is a sweet kid but crazy when he drinks—A regular nuthouse actually and just exactly the image of what the journalists want to say about the Beat Generation nevertheless a harmless and pleasant arrangement for young bachelors and a good idea in the long run—Because you can rush into any room and find the expert, like say Ben’s room and ask “Hey what did Bodhidharma say to the Second Patriarch?”—“He said go fuck yourself, make your mind like a wall, dont pant after outside activities and dont bug me with your outside plans”—“So the guy goes out and stands on his head in the snow?”—“No that was Fubar”—Or you go runnin into Dave Wain’s room and there he is sitting crosslegged on his mattress on the floor reading Jane Austen, you ask “What's the best way to make beef Stroganoff?”—“Beef Stroganoff is very simple, ’t’aint nothin but a good well cooked beef and onion stew that you let cool afterwards then you throw in mushrooms and lotsa sour cream, I'll come down and show way soon’s I finish this chapter in this marvelous novel, I wanta find out what happens next”—Or you go into the Negro’s room and ask if you can borrow his tape recorder because right at the moment some funny things are being said in the kitchen by Duluoz and McLear and Monsanto and some newspaperman—Because the kitchen was also the main talking room where everybody sat in a clutter of dishes and ashtrays and all kinds of visitors came—The year before a beautiful 16 year old Japanese girl had come there just to interview me,
