Wacky Wednesday

Wacky Wednesday by Dr. Seuss (Theo LeSieg), illustrated by George Booth

A bunch of weird things happen on Wednesday. There is little in the area of plot and the wackiness is rather tame by Seuss standards. 

Where the Sidewalk Ends

Where the Sidewalk Ends Special Edition with 12 Extra Poems: Poems and Drawings by Shel Silverstein (Author, Illustrator)

Shel Silverstein has a keen wit that he shows with both words and illustrations. The poems have a variety of structures. Some are just a few lines. Others extend for multiple pages. The rhythm and rhyme differ from poem to poem. Some are almost unstructured, while others have a strict rhythm and rhyme that just begs to be sung. The poems are geared towards children and often have a subversive twist. There are some that rely on simple wordplay. (In one, the kid ate a drumstick, much to the chagrin of the drummer.) There is a long one about peanut butter and a short song about sucking your thumb and many others.

Wheedle on the Needle

Wheedle on the Needle by Stephen Cosgrove (Author), Robin James (Illustrator)

The Wheedle lived peaceable in the northwest. Then some people came and started whistling while they worked. He could not sleep with this noise. He tried scaring them and taking their tools. These didn't work. He then moved out to the high mountain where he could sleep well. After some years, the workers came to the foot of the mountain and whistled. He decided to fix this by gathering up clouds and then climbing to the top of the space needle. He made it rain endlessly up there. This got people to stop whistling and enabled him to sleep. However, the people were upset about this. The maor proposed a solution - they would make big earmuffs for the Wheedle. They did this and now he could sleep and stop the rain. His nose now glows at the top the Space Needle. The story is a tongue-in-cheek Seattle story.

There's a Wocket in my Pocket: Dr. Seuss's Book of Ridiculous Rhymes

There's a Wocket in my Pocket: Dr. Seuss's Book of Ridiculous Rhymes (Big Bright & Early Board Book) by Dr. Seuss

This is one of the weaker Seuss books, and this abridged version does not help. It is a nonstop list of "nonsense" words that rhyme with real words. Seuss has fun illustrating each of the nonsense items as some picture.

He Bear, She Bear

He Bear, She Bear by Stan and Jan Berenstain

This is a rhyming Berenstain Bear book that talks about "he bears" and "she bears". He's can be dads. She's can be moms. They both can engage in any career they want. It has positive message of no activities being restricted by gender. This feels very quaint compared to modern concerns with gender dysphoria. 

Bridge to Terabithia

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

An elementary school boy (Jess) looks forward to being the fastest boy at his rural Virginia school. However, a girl (Leslie) moves in and ends up beating all the boys. This leads to the gradual ending of the races. (They would not want to race with a girl.) At first he keeps his distance, but gradually he becomes good friends with her. She has moved out there with her family from the DC suburbs. They spend time together and become good friends. They also work to help avenge a "mean girl" who took treats from his little sister. Later Leslie helps console the mean girl from her separate issues. Jess and Leslie have their own little place in the woods by a creek that they call Terabithia.

One day, Jess's teacher invites him to come to DC with her to tour a museum. While on their way, Jess thinks about inviting Leslie. However, he justifies not doing it. When he gets home, he finds that Leslie has died. This is hard for him. The tail end deals with him dealing with the grieving process. He first denies it, later accepts it, and then decides to use some of Leslie's family's lumber to build a bridge.

It is a well-written exploration of friendship, fitting in and dealing with death.

Dinosaur Time

Dinosaur Time by Peggy Parish (Author), Arnold Lobel (Illustrator)

There are many dinosaurs. This book has a picture and description of each type of dinosaurs. If somebody is really interested in dinosaurs, they may like this. However, the reading can be hard with the dinosaur names (even though a pronunciation is given.) Many of the animals are fairly obscure making it a tedious read.

Jaws

Jaws by Peter Benchley

A Long Island resort town depends entirely on the summer tourist season for its livelihood. Early one summer, a woman goes missing after a late night swim. They discover parts of her body that were spit out by a shark. The local cop wants to close the beach, but the rest of the town does not for fear of negative impacts. Alas, this backfires as the shark goes to attack others. The book also takes us inside the "mind" of the shark as it seeks out others.

There are a few subplots in the movie regarding conflicts in the small town, marital infidelity and the mob. This mostly detracts from the primary interest of the shark. The shark is one powerful beast that is driven to attack animals that seem under stress. This results in the gruesome death of many people. The seems to be much smarter than the dumb fish that everyone things he is. The fisherman, the cop and and ocean scientist all go out to try to defeat the shark. Only one of them returns.

Chocolate War

[November 2009] Frank Muller did a great job performing this audiobook. Unfortunately, the story is filled with stereotyped caricatures. Most of the characters appear nothing more than one-dimensional, with the attempts to 'broaden' them oten falling flat. The end also seems somewhat forced on the story.

Selected Short Stories of Philip K Dick

Philip K Dick short stories are popular fodder for movies. He has an innovative mind, and explores bizarre situations that have some relevance to the current life. This collection had a few stories. Alas, it has been a long time since I started to write this, so I can't remember some of my original thoughts, but here we go.


Electric Ant
Novelty Act (1964) - jug blowing, furry animal make feel good. When you get by with a crutch, you also get in trouble when it leaves.
The Last of the Masters (aka Protection Agency) (1954) - ruled by "company" of robots. They try to do whats best for people, but that isn't what the people want. Oh, and their usefulness expired years ago.
A Little Something for us Tempunauts (1974) - time Travel closed loops
Progeny
The Exit Door Leads In
The War with the Fnools - I think these were people-like things that infiltrated earth.
The Preserving Machine - a shoe?

Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said

A famous musician/television show host suddenly finds his identity missing. He attempts to get a fake id and run from the law, but eventually gets apprehended. Once there, he meets the druggie incestuous sister of the police general. They both take a drug and find the world gradually return to normal. However, she ends up dead from an apparent overdose. It turns out that the drug causes a space-time continuum alteration in the world of everybody involved.

The book seems very dated within the early 70s culture, with tiring vulgar language, drugs and morality. He foresees a future of 3d tv, flying cars and video phones - yet still with LP records and the same big record companies and TV networks. Oops!

The premise is also fairly bizarre. A drug causes the taker to have an altered state of reality. However, this "altered state" is in fact "reality" to everybody else around. Thus, everybody else ends up perceiving the world the same way until the drug wears off (or in the case here - the user dies from the excessive strain of the drug.) This could get really strange if intersecting people started taking the drug.