Jack Nicholson was thinking about very special chickens - specifically those deadly flying hens, reeking with venom: the kind that will bury their beaks in your belly as you sleep, the ones that cackle in dark closets and lurk like vultures just beyond the transom. More properly, Jack Nicholson was thinking about people who are obsessively concerned with such chickens. "People who see...

The Outsider

He thought of himself as a dark specter beyond the bathers. Most of the lifeguards at this particular New Jersey beach had opted for the image of Bronze Protector, but Jack Nicholson was different. He was a boat guard, and he enjoyed rowing out beyond the breakers. His job was to see that no swimmer strayed too far...