Reversing the Numbness

Monday, January 28, 2008

Notes from the Good Doctor

I sure love Dr. Seuss, and luckily, so do my shorties. Here is some of my favorite Seuss.

It's a troublesome world. All the people who're in it
are troubled with troubles almost every minute.
You ought to be thankful, a whole heaping lot,
for the places and people you're lucky you're not!

-Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?
Here's a good one to think about while working.
Think they work you too hard...?
Think of poor Ali Sard!
He has to mow grass in his uncle's back yard
and it's quick-growing grass
and it grows as he mows it.
The faster he mows it, the faster he grows it.
And all that his stingy old uncle will pay
for his shoving that mower around in that hay
is the piffulous pay of two Dooklas a day.
And Ali can't live on such piffulous pay!

So...

He has to paint flagpoles
on Sundays in Grooz.
How lucky you are
you don't live in his shoes!

-Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?
Horton knows what's up.
Their voices were heard! They rang out clear and clean.
And the elephant smiled. "Do you see what I mean?...
They've proved they ARE persons, no matter how small.
And their whole world was saved by the Smallest of All!"

-Horton Hears a Who
This one always killed me as a kid, and now it's one of my girl's favorites.
Now, bicycles were never made
For pale green pants to ride 'em,
Especially spooky pale green pants
With nobody inside 'em!

-What Was I Scared Of?
Yertle, meet the karma police.
And today the great Yertle, that Marvelous he,
Is King of the Mud. That is all he can see.
And the turtles, of course ... all the turtles are free
As turtles and, maybe, all creatures should be.

-Yertle the Turtle
And last but far, far from least, the good ol' Lorax.
"Mister!" he said with a sawdusty sneeze,
"I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees.
I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tounges.
And I'm asking you, sir, at the top of my lungs"--
he was very upset as he shouted and puffed--
"What's that THING you've made out of my Truffula tuft?"

"Look, Lorax," I said. "There's no cause for alarm.
I chopped just one tree. I am doing no harm.
I'm being quite useful. This thing is a Thneed.
A Thneed's a Fine-Something-That-All-People-Need!
It's a shirt. It's a sock. It's a glove. It's a hat.
But it has other uses. Yes, far beyond that.
You can use it for carpets. For pillows! For sheets!
Or curtains! Or covers for bicycle seats!"

The Lorax said,
"Sir! You are crazy with greed.
There is no one on earth
who would buy that fool Thneed!"

But the very next minute I proved he was wrong.
For, just at that minute, a chap came along,
and he thought that the Thneed I had knitted was great.
He happily bought it for three ninethy-eight.

I laughed at the Lorax, "You poor stupid guy!
You never can tell what some people will buy."

-The Lorax

13 comments:

Unknown said...

*Wonders how long it takes before the suits from Random House pounce on Sleek's latest post*

Unknown said...

Perhaps they'll offer you a deal - this is pretty good marketing, after all. My favourite Dr. Seuss book was Die 500 Hoede van Sebastiaan Klippers. Guess the original title!

SleekPelt said...

teoh: I wholeheartedly suggest any and all purchase the fine books the small excerpts come from. 500 Hats: I had to Google it -- I don't seem to remember that one.

getto said...

Not regarding this post, but glad to have you back Sleek!

HopSkipJump said...

At my high school convocation, my English teacher gave me a copy of 'Oh, Think of the Places You'll Go.' I was a fan as a kid but it rekindled my interest. The more I reread the books, the more I am amazed at the brilliance of the author's mind. Cool post.

Oh, and so nice to have you back.

Susan Chipley said...

I just can't wait to take the kids to see this.  March 13th is the release date.  I sure do love to read the Dr. Suess books to them.  Sleek has an awesome set of Dr. Suess books from the mid-70s.  Three collections of Suess stories. 

Clash said...

Enjoyed those, Sleek!

One of my favorite Suessisms:

"Adults are just obsolete children and the hell with them."

josh williams said...

Hey, the thought of green eggs and ham fills my veins with fatty goodness.Cheers JW

Rob Zero said...

When I was growing up, my favorite Dr. Suess book was one he wrote under his real name. It's called "Please Try to Remember the First of Octember." I just looked it up on Amazon and found that he did not illustrate it. Regardless, it was a real hoot to a 6 year old.

Incidentally, I've seen some real cool Suess tattoos in recent issues of Tattoo magazine.

Rob Zero said...

I just realized I continually misspelled the good Dr's name.

Susan Chipley said...

Rob: So did I. Yikes!

SleekPelt said...

geto boy: I guess I wasn't back for long! Geesh. I'm working it out and I hope to really be back to blogging soon. I miss it.

IF: I'm glad you got a lot out of the good doctor too. As I've mentioned to you before, he taught me many of my values.

dm: We are so there.

clash: I like that.

josh: Green Eggs and Ham was like a primer for the shortest of shorties. Good stuff.

rob: Any time the good doctor wrote a book that he did not illustrate, he went by his real name with his last name reversed: Theo Lesieg.

BirdMadGirl said...

<3 <3 <3 <3

I love the Seuss :)