Duplex2003

Alex Rose:
  We brought you this little housewarming gift.  [gives Mrs. Connelly a bottle of wine]

Mrs. Connelly:
  Oh, that's very kind of you, thank you.  I'll open it for you.  I don't drink myself, it's a sin.

Alex Rose:
  [to Nancy]  Irish Catholics don't drink?

Mrs. Connelly:
  Sit down, dears, sit down!  I brought ya a little something to nibble on as well.

Alex Rose:
  Oh, Bugles.  Wow, I didn't realise they even still made Bugles.

Mrs. Connelly:
  [offering Alex a Bugle dipped in French onion dip]  Come along, dear, it's French onion.

Alex Rose:
  [nibbles while looking at Bugles box; sees expiration date reads "October 1997"]  Magnificent parrot.

Mrs. Connelly:
  It's not a parrot, dear.  He's a macaw.  He's named after my late husband, Richard.  I've had Little Dick for forty years.  [Alex and Nancy smile]  Now tell me about yourselves.  What do you do, Allen?

Alex Rose:
  [correcting her]  Alex.

Nancy Kendricks:
  Alex is a writer.

Mrs. Connelly:
  Oh, a writer. I always thought of that as more of a hobby than a real job.  I suppose I'm forgettin' about Joyce.

Alex Rose:
  Joyce, James Joyce, of course.  Wonderful writer.

Mrs. Connelly:
  He died drunk and penniless.

Nancy Kendricks:
  Well, Alex's first novel was published in hardback, and he's just about to finish his second one.

Mrs. Connelly:
  Oh, what's it about?

Alex Rose:
  Well, I like to call it an urban epic.  It's about three generations of this family in New York that own a printing press, and I tell a story mainly about—

Mrs. Connelly:
  [bored, cutting him off]  Oh, that's nice.  Let me give you a refill.  Big Dick had the taste, too.  He was a seaman.  The drink took him from me in 1963.  We'd been married for 58 years.  [Nancy counts silently]