Secrets of the Sperber coup

In the whole culture right through until the Nazis turned out the lights, talk was a way of being, and it was universally understood that the best talkers had the right to talk it all away. When the distinguished and wildly eccentric legal advocate Hugo Sperber played cards, people would take turns to stand behind him so they could overhear his running commentary: The queue would stretch down the aisle between the tables all the way to the door of the cafe.

From Clive James' article (adapted from his great book Cultural Amnesia) on doomed Viennese actor, raconteur and author Egon Friedell.

This post is lifted verbatim from gentleman Mark Slutsky's non-bridge blog The Uses of Disenchantment -- thanks.