FLASHBACK....

kidnapping lawrence ferlinghetti      the plan, hold him for ransom until an agreement to publish was forced a la the unabomber manifesto, albeit on a more pocket-size scale     had to settle for gregory corso, though who, it turned out, was intrigued by the situation     unfortunately, the semi-famous author’s friends and former publishers weren’t, the plan thus unraveling    the two writers talked in the meantime, mostly about their difference in taste with regards to—not poetry—but their narcotics of choice    and later they parted, much to their credit, without either respect or animosity    the following morning our young writer would come across a herb caen article announcing that the city of brotherly lovers was offering our terrorist a press run if he agreed A) to keep Corso and B) that said press run be limited to no more than two copies the as-yet unpublished writer figured no amount of fame was worth marrying such a maiden and, anyway, he already had a dog who, at the very least, was housebroken still, the threat of harm brought about radical changes in ferlinghetti’s lifestyle    the most obvious manifestation, of course, being the fact that he no longer traveled without an entourage of bodyguards    most of whom were frustrated writers themselves, which only served them to better understand the predatory type and, besides, with so many bodies on the payroll, all future city light printings would have to be put off until the climate was a steadier one    which is to say, indefinitely     this and the fact that when he appeared in public, it was no longer as himself, but instead as one of the talents he so long ago helped cultivate     which worked, but only as long as one of them remained alive    (one besides burroughs, the logic being that he had always been dead)    mayhem ensued as a result of such an oversight, ginsberg three years ripe (at least) spotted near where the people’s garden once stood    and although sales of his books skyrocketed with such exposure, generating the first book of poems to top the n.y. times bestseller list since jewel’s best-selling a day without kotex (1999)    gold for city lights and san francisco both as they became the new metjagoria    what with ginsberg being a much easier sell than the virgin mary these days    all good, this    but, alas, los angeles remained impervious to being saved     charles bukowski finally got his while walking on sunset boulevard, while wearing a sweater no less   mr. ferlinghetti, of course, would receive a proper burial while our author remained largely unknown outside of himself     both will be sadly missed