The Anchovy provides sustenance to musicians in this scene, from the longer experimental prose piece "Joseph Cornell's Operas." — The Schoolmarm
Now, Houdini! we shouted, sitting back in our seats to await his entrance onto the opera stage, but he did not come, he is indisposed, the impresario announced, because of his mother, who had shortly before passed on, Mr. Houdini has enrolled in the Institute for Psychical Research, he hopes to bend spoons solely with the power of his gaze, he hopes, the impresario continued, fiddling with his high silk hat, he hopes, I say, to establish communication with the dead, we were disappointed, the opera music went on a while unaccompanied, it behaved well under the circumstances, the musicians had put down their instruments in order to eat anchovy sandwiches, we closed our eyes and waited for something to happen, it was Alexandre Gustave Eiffel who relieved the terrible boredom, installing a tower of quite ingenious construction onstage, it is mental, he told us in confidence, an entirely mental creation . . .
