I should've been a bit more specific than I was - the posturing I meant refers to Ellroy as a whole. It's there in his non-fiction and his public persona. I mean, I'm entertained by it … up to a point.

Good luck, goodbye, Bobby Jean.

I was trying to think of my favourite goodbye in a book - and this is it. Thanks for the reminder, and it fits here just about all right.

The European canon is he-ah.

The first two thirds of The Black Dahlia were fine, but then it seemed to explode on him, somehow. American Tabloid is pretty good, but not what I hoped it would be after hearing so much about it. It all seems to be posturing, compared with the elegance and humour of Leonard.

This man refers to the act of love as 'pouring the pork'. That's not right.

Jessup, jessup, jessup.

He was definitely born within the sight of bow legs.

Good points. 
I was going by my dictionary def: 'An expression intended to convey the opposite to the literal meaning'. 
However, this dictionary is from 1932 and defines masturbation as 'To practise self-defilement'.

Paul Westerberg's version of Nowhere Man is great, too.

I don't believe you.

'I would like a title before my name:
A duke, or a baron, or a dame.
Could be knighted:
Mr/Sir Working Class.
I could tell Her Majesty that she's a mess,
Oh yes!
I could get dressed up right in my Sunday best.'

Irony is kind of like when you say something, but mean the opposite. Like saying 'Hello, fatty,' to a really skinny girl. Nothing at all to do with the Alanis Morrisette song. She didn't know what it means either.

Start your own.

I would like a title before my name
A duke, or a baron, or a dame
Could be knighted:
Mr Sir-Working-Class.

'I'm sitting on a horse's head!'

Do you remember when David Blaine did his suspended-in-a-glass-box-without-food trick in London a few years ago? Someone got themselves a remote controlled helicopter and flew a hamburger up to him. 
Also, Paul McCartney got drunk and went to see him. A photographer happened to be there and started pestering McCartney,…

Dismaying.

'And my advice for those who die:
Declare the pennies on your eyes.'

I enjoy the repercussions of this for people who say they get stigmata.