Last night I was at a dinner and the woman across the table from me was
an artistic sort of person. She'd been an actress and is now studying
literature. She was talking about poetry and just on the off chance I
said "You're interested in poetry -- are you by any chance familiar
with Leonard Cohen?" Well, she said, "Of course!" Turns out she's
>From Montreal herself. She said the Cohen family is very well known in
the area. I got the impression they are pretty rich. She said Leonard
was really born with a silver spoon in his mouth but it's probably not
good for his image ... and then she said she had dated his (older?)
brother Milton! Also that Milton is some kind of successful
international businessman (in furs?), and that Leonard probably doesn't
love that for his image either. I asked how many Cohen kids there were
and she said she thought maybe five?


Anyway, it was really fascinating to talk to her. Now I don't know
anything about L. Cohen's history, so perhaps you are all going to
write to me and say "Hey, Sue, did you also know that the word 'gullible'
doesn't appear in the dictionary?", but I assume that she was
telling the truth. It was quite a thrill anyway.


BTW, I asked what she thought of Cohen's work and she said she liked
it well enough but thought it was sometimes pedantic. She was referring
to his written poetry and said she hasn't heard his recent work. She
asked me whether I'd heard recordings of him reading his poetry and
doing his songs in coffee-bar type settings. I haven't -- I haven't
even heard of such recordings. Bootlegs or off of radio, I guess.


Anyway, interesting!

Although I can't confirm that Lenny's older bro' is named Milton,
suffice to say that Cohen's family was at least middle class if
not outright wealthy and he went to McGill Law School under great
pressure.


(ref. "Up The Hill", by former Liberal MP and ex-Cohen roommate
at McGill, Donald Johnston)