Theodor Seuss Geisel (2 March 1904 – 24 September 1991) known to us as Dr Seuss was an American writer, poet and cartoonist.
Green Eggs and Ham was my favourite and I still know every word. I have only now discovered that the reason I know every word is that there are only 225 words used in the entire story. The Good Doctor's editor took him a bet that he could not write a story using 50 words or less. Green Eggs and Ham uses exactly 50 words and contains a total of 225 words. For those interested the words are:-
a, am, and, anywhere, are, be, boat, box, car, could, dark, do, eat, eggs, fox, goat, good, green, ham, here, house, I, if, in, let, like, may, me, mouse, not, on, or, rain, Sam, say, see, so, thank, that, the, them, there, they, train, tree, try, will, with, would, you.
I know why it was my favourite too - short and quick to read and by knowing it off by heart (have not used that expression for a while) made it easy to recite with your eyes closed when naughty boys did not want to close theirs'. I clearly remember Gareth questioning me about what nonsense I was speaking at the end of a particularly long story when my eyes were closing and I had started dreaming and making up words.
Dr Seuss published 46 children's books with others being The Cat in the Hat, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish and How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
Now with my latest addiction to Pinterest, Dr Seuss's name keeps coming up. I know most of his books but am pretty blown away by these quotes from his books. Maybe you have to see these quotes standing on their own and not in children's books and while reading stories to little boys for them to make more sense. I can't remember being blown away by them years ago - perhaps these things come with age. Do you remember any of them?
From "Happy Birthday to You"
From "Oh! The Places You'll Go!"
And also from "Oh! The Places.."
Step with care and great tact
And remember that life's a great balancing act
Just never forget to be dexterous and deft
And never mix up your right foot with your left.
From "I can read with my eyes shut"
(me too)
I love this one. Where does this one come from?
Did you ever fly a kite in bed?
Did you ever walk with ten cats on your head?
Did you ever milk this kind of cow?
Well, we can do it. We know how.
If you never did, you should.
These things are fun and fun is good.
From: "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish"
This comic doctor had lots of great advice:-
On being alone:-
All alone!
Whether you like it or not,
alone is something you’ll be quite a lot.
I’m afraid sometimes you’ll play lonely games too,
games you can’t win because you’ll play against you.
On being "You":-
If you’d never been born,
then you might be an Isn’t!
An Isn’t has no fun at all. No, he isn’t.
You are you.
Now, isn’t that pleasant?
Today you are you
that is truer than true
There is no one alive
who is youer than you
On giving everyone a chance:-
A person’s a person, no matter how small.
and
I know, up on top you are seeing great sights,
but down here at the bottom we, too, should have rights.
On coping with life:-
I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind.
Some come from ahead and some come from behind.
But I’ve bought a big bat. I’m all ready you see.
Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!
On being positive:-
And will you succeed? Yes indeed, yes indeed!
Ninety-eight and three-quarters percent guaranteed!
On thinking:-
Think and wonder, wonder and think.
Think left and think right
and think low and think high.
Oh, the things you can think up if only you try
Clever man. I wish I had concentrated more and not thought that they were just "easy peasy" books with bright pictures to read quickly at bedtime to three boisterous boys. I would have read them slowly and clearly and with my eyes open!!
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