Old and new friends

I've been hittin' the books lately.

Heavy stuff.

Pooh Perplex (Frederick C. Crews, E.P. Dutton book, ISBN 63-15770) was first off the shelf. I remember Master Robin's adventures from when I was his age. Pooh Perplex is something else.

Pooh Perplex' premise is that "Though critics everywhere acknowledge A.A. Milne's Christopher Robin books to be great masterpieces, critics nowhere agree on what they mean."

The book's subtitle is "A Freshman Casebook." It includes 12 critiques including "A Bourgeois Writer's Proletarian Fables," "O Felix Culpa! The Sacramental Meaning of Winnie-the-Pooh," and, "A la recherche du Pooh perdu" (which I shall refrain from translating).

I recommended the work to a once-upon-a-time English major (don't call me "majorette!") and a librarian who is named neither Marion nor even Marian. Both ladies long have been acquainted with Pooh and Piglet and Eeyore and all the rest - although I didn't recall Tigger from my toddler days, but there he was in glorious orange and black in Chapter 2 of The House at Pooh Corner.

The English major recalled taking a stab at reading a Pooh work in Latin, which may be why she decided to major in English. She since went on to dabble in numbers and now is an Oracle of a sort.

There's a nice Pooh & Friends Web site at http://www.just-pooh.com.

Pooh Perplex is a short work, so I hied myself back to the local lending library, hereafter The 3 Ls, where I armed myself with a couple of P.G. Wodehouse works.

An aside: Microsoft's Word 2007 - the last version of Word that will take up disk space on my computer - has a spell check that, well, lacks a decent vocabulary. It tells me this word and that word are incorrectly keyed, but I know better. To get a warm fuzzy, I "confirm" my spelling at Merriam-Webster OnLine (http://www.merriam-webster.com. If I wasn't so lazy, I could as easily look in the unabridged; trouble is, I get lost in it . . . go looking for "hied" and never get past the D words.

I am acquainted with Bertie and Jeeves, but I am now being introduced to Uncle Fred - all 25 chapters and 448 pages of "The World of Uncle Fred." Next up is a book of about the same heft but having several "short" stories, including a visit with the aforementioned Bertie and Jeeves.

When I was very young - probably well before your time - I used to spend hours at The 3 L in my hometown where, funny enough, my librarian friend now shares her wealth of knowledge. By the by, can anyone provide a good answer why "doctor," "lawyer," "librarian," and other professional titles are all lower case while "realtor" - a title for people who need no formal education and who pass a single test (often after the third try) , rate a CAPITAL R? I know I'm jousting at windmills; it ranks right down there with Things To Worry About with PhDoctors (and any other "doctor" that lacks an MD or DO suffix to his or her name).

I have not given up "serious" reading and my two Wodehouse books are paired with two with heavier subjects. The second Wodehouse book will be Shabat recreation since it is more easily put down (between stories) than the other books.

I remember reading books back when Amos-n-Andy were white and once again books are becoming a favorite pastime. It's like coming home and greeting old friends again.

Sitting down with a book is almost as good as sitting down with long-time (I think I'll pass on the "O" word here) friends who challenge each others' minds; absolutely the best way a geezer can keep his wits about him.

Yohanon
Yohanon.Glenn @ gmail.com