A briliiant if underappreciated dramaturge I know, Roger Olson, shared
with me that he was sure that Ring Lardner pulled incidents and
characters from Wagner's "Parsifal," which might be consistent with a
quote attributed to him by Ross that he would write words at random
and fill in subject matter, for his short stories. This adds quite a
few layers to a short story like "Haircut," or maybe it doesn't. In
any case, my question is two-part: is Roger Olson alone in this
analysis, or have others cited it; and, does Lardner mention words to
this effect, or does one find enough substance to confirm that?

I am hoping your resources are better than mine for access to the
higher critiicism, and that "academic google" is online or in beta.
This isn't for a class, though I wouldn't mind it as a class.