(OT: THE SEAGULL)

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated 7/23/02 11:07:23 AM Eastern Daylight Time, Bapopik at AOL.COM
writes:

>    I visited Anton Checkov's Yalta home just now.  There is a seagull above
> his bed.  My local tour guide said that he wrote THE SEAGULL while in Yalta.
>     THE SEAGULL was written in 1896 and revised in 1898.  Checkov moved to
> Yalta in 1899.
>     HE DID NOT WRITE _THE SEAGULL_ IN YALTA!
>     I've never been in Yalta before.  I last saw THE SEAGULL about 25 years
> ago, and it starred Blythe Danner (when she wasn't known as Gwyneth
Paltrow's
> mother).  And I know that this tour guide, who's done this tour many times,
> isn't telling the correct info.

It could have been worse.  Lord Byron (when he wasn't known as the father of
Ada, Countess of Lovelace) visited the castle of Chillon, where the Swiss
patriot Bonnivard was imprisoned for a number of years.  (This was on the
same tour on which Byron and his travelling companions held their notorious
ghost-story challenge).  Byron wrote a famous poem, "The Prisoner of
Chillon", based on the misinformation his tour guide told him.

Maybe Crimea does pay.  You'll have to ask the SevastoPOL.

      - Jim Landau