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THORNE

                                                July 29, 1992 

"Rain in The Doorway" is a book                         
by Thorne Smith, a really funny               This was the one of 
(in more than one sense) fantasy              the favorites of the
novel from 1933.                              TOADKEEPER
                             
                                   
It begins with a man standing in        
the doorway of a department store,   
to escape a torrential down pour.       

Rain dripping down his nose, he   
feels depressed and dissatisfied... 
   
And the doorway behind him opens,    
a hand reaches out to grab him and    
he's drawn through into another    
universe.  It seems much like ours,       He's best known for 
except that people take things much       "Topper", a                      
less seriously...  as with all            tremendous hit of                 
Thorne Smith books there is much          the 1920s, later                
drunkenness and nudity and silly          made into a Cary   
dialog.                                   Grant movie, and   
                                          then a 50s TV show.
     ALCOHOL_COMEDY  
                                                             
   Myself I'm a fan of                                    Dionysian     
   "The Night Life of                                     redemption.
   the Gods".                                              
                      
      A guy invents a ray that turns people to           
      stone, and another that turns them back.          
                                                       
      Then he takes the stone-to-flesh ray to            
      the Met, and uses it on the statues of the       
      Greek gods.                                      
                                                           
                             They don't make                    
                             science fiction
                             like they used to.            
                             

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