Just do me this one favor, okay?

I may have mentioned before how much I love P.G. Wodehouse. However, I think it may have always been in the context of  expressing my love for Fry and Laurie's Jeeves and Wooster.

 How foolish of me.

I have been a fan of the Jeeves books forever but it wasn't until last year that I discovered all of Wodehouse's other works. It started with an audio version of The Adventures of Sally and snowballed into what could be almost be called an obsession. 

The man was genius with a capital G and several exclamation points behind.

 I just finished Something Fresh and am bowled over by his absolute mastery of words. Forget about the fact that P.G. Wodehouse is always funny without being mean or crude. No small feat if you consider the sheer number of books he managed to publish. His perfect use of language is mind boggling. In the second clip below Stephen Fry calls him "a Lord of Language" and that about sums up why you should be gobbling up his books. If you love (or just like) words, Wodehouse is your man. Even when they're not laugh out loud funny, they're so well written that any of his books are pure pleasure. The incomparable Stephen Fry puts it better here than I could in a million years.
Stephen Fry on P. G. Wodehouse

Now, I am a big proponent of, "if you CAN read it, you SHOULD" but am not averse to a nice audio book now and then. They really do make long, tedious tasks like housework or canning feel easier and they definitely shorten long drives. In a good way. In the case of P.G. Wodehouse it's a toss-up as to which delivery system is the most pleasing. If you get the right narrator for the audio version, it almost makes the book better. My absolute favorite is Frederick Davidson. His delivery of some of the lines in Something Fresh  had my knees weak with laughter as I cleaned the kitchen last night. I get most of my audio books through my library (free, online and usually in my jammies. Can't beat that I tell you!). You probably could too. 

So, if you have or haven't read P.G Wodehouse before, get to reading. Right now. Take Stephen Fry's suggestion and try Carry On, Jeeves or Something Fresh if you don't know where to start . Then come back and watch this lovely documentary I found on YouTube and have posted here for your viewing pleasure. Or clear your schedule for an hour, watch it right now and then come back and watch it again later. 

You won't be sorry. 

(My sister Janene excluded of course.)

Birthday Wishes

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

 If you have children that go to school you should be well aware that Theodor Geisel was born today in 1904. Due to the fact that I am basically a large toddler, I still read and love Dr Seuss. In fact, having Dr. Seuss day at school was always one of the few things that I could always get behind. I say few things because I am one of those lame Moms that think most of the extra stuff they pay attention to in elementary school trends to the useless and just plain stupid. So shoot me. I have always liked it so much that it makes me kind of sad that Suzie is finally too old for it and we don't get to participate in Dr. Seuss Day anymore. So in honor of the fact that if he were alive today he would be gumming Birthday cake with us, there should be Green Eggs and Ham on the table tonight. Consume those, whether or not there is a fox present, and then enjoy the clever absurdities in my 2 favorites of his stories-The Sneetches and What was I Scared of?. Try not to feel too sad for the plain belly Sneetches with no stars upon thars and too worried about the pair of pale green pants with nobody inside 'em as you do. I know I should mention How the Grinch Stole Christmas  but let's just save that for Christmas shall we? Then before you toddle off to bed take with you 

this little "Did you know?" that I picked up from one of my favorite websites; Dictionary.com. Seriously. I go on there nearly everyday. Go play the Word Dynamo games. They'll let you play the same words over and over until you can convince yourself that you're not as much of a dumbass as originally thought.

Along with grinch, Dr. Seuss also invented the word

*nerd*
1951, U.S. student slang, probably an alteration of 1940s slang nert "stupid or crazy person," itself an alteration of nut. The word turns up in a Dr. Seuss book from 1950 ("If I Ran the Zoo"), which may have contributed to its rise. Adjective nerdy is from 1978.

(nerd. Dictionary.com. Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper, Historian. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/nerd (accessed: March 02, 2012).

 Just to keep you from having to look to the right, I'll leave you with this Dr. Seuss quote(that I really consider words to live by and one of the reasons I find his stuff so appealing)here instead,

"I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, It's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, And that enables you to laugh at life's realities.”