82 Comments
User's avatar
Margaret Anna Alice's avatar

Love this. The original text always makes me tear up:

“We’ll be friends forever, won’t we, Pooh?” asked Piglet.

“Even longer,” Pooh answered.

Expand full comment
Santini Fan's avatar

So sweet.

And so sad to realize that the innocence is now gone for so many and/or maybe it never existed. I fear for our precious grandchildren😰

Expand full comment
Margaret Anna Alice's avatar

I know, Santini Fan 😿 I can’t imagine my childhood without the magic of books like those by A.A. Milne, C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, Roald Dahl, Jean Craighead George, Scott O’Dell, Astrid Lindgren, Louisa May Alcott, the Brothers Grimm, and, of course, Lewis Carroll. Lemony Snicket also belongs in the core childhood curriculum, although I didn’t read “A Series of Unfortunate Events” until I was an adult. I think if we can get these books into the hands of children and grandchildren, we may have hope for the future yet.

Expand full comment
Birdingmom's avatar

It's funny to see the familiar names of authors I also loved even though MMA and I are a generation apart. One of the best things about homeschooling was becoming even more of a lover of children's literature. Someone has said it is better written than adult lit b/c children are not easily taken in by bad writing. Homeschooling meant I got introduced to some new authors like Richard Peck, whose writing is hilarious. Even though Bill Peet was writing during my childhood, I wasn't familiar with him. His metered rhyming books and illustrations are great fun. Madeline L'Engle and Frances Hodgson Burnett are two authors we got to revisit. Books are why I don't enjoy movies; my imagination is far superior to anything created for the screen. The digital age has already robbed too many generations of the ability to use their imagination, not to mention having a long enough attention span to read a book.

Expand full comment
kitten seeking answers's avatar

my mom grew up in poverty ... i think she thoroughly enjoyed reliving her childhood raising her three daughters... weekly trips to the library & all the classics... one Christmas she hand sewed a Piglet and Pooh that looked exactly like the characters... she had an amazing eye for detail and artistic talent💕🐱🙏🐱💕

Expand full comment
Birdingmom's avatar

That was a wonderful gift she gave you: instilling the love of reading great literature!

Expand full comment
Bootsorourke's avatar

She sounds amazing.

Expand full comment
kitten seeking answers's avatar

... forgot to mention she also fashioned an Eeyore with detachable button on tail... xoxoxo

Expand full comment
kitten seeking answers's avatar

...’Secret Garden’ = my all-time favorite 💕🐱💕.

Expand full comment
Birdingmom's avatar

Yes, I love that book also and think it's her best of the 3 I'm familiar with. "A Little Princess" is very good, although the main character is a little too perfect. "Little Lord Fauntleroy" is over the top in that way! I found the main character to not be believable for that reason. Have you read Kate DiCamillo's "The Tale of Despereaux"? That title just popped into my head. It's a Newbery winner - maybe one of the last ones that was decent. How about "Understood Betsy"? I reread that one occasionally because I enjoy stories of transformation.

Expand full comment
kitten seeking answers's avatar

... you’re making me sentimental about books, library trips... thank you for the recommendations ... will check them out... like curling up with a physical book & physically turning the pages at my own pace, savoring the words & illustrations

💕🐱🙏🐱💕

Expand full comment
Margaret Anna Alice's avatar

Now I feel badly for leaving Madeleine L’Engle and so many others out. When I was in college, I had the opportunity to arrange a special luncheon for Madeleine L’Engle and her friend and got to invite 12 people to participate. She was lovely and wise.

Expand full comment
Birdingmom's avatar

Don't feel bad, MAA - there are so many, we could do this all night! 😺

Expand full comment
kitten seeking answers's avatar

...just a few months ago recommended Bill Peets’ Cappyboppy to neighbors’ kids who loved it! love your comments on kids’ discerning taste in writing!

Expand full comment
Birdingmom's avatar

I think I've managed to collect all his books but one thanks to a bargain book place that doesn't exist anymore and a couple of used books I bought on Amazon, including Cappyboppy. What a family that must've been to grow up in! I would have loved it.

Expand full comment
Sathanas Juggernaut's avatar

Meanwhile, I was reading Fighting Fantasy books where I could pretend I was a warrior descending into dungeons to battle trolls and goblins, or a pulp scifi sleuth investigating alien shenanigans on a far off world, or a samurai, or a battle robot pilot etc etc. No time for silly sentimentality!

Expand full comment
Birdingmom's avatar

And those are healthy books for a man cub! Our son read the Brian Jacques "Redwall" series over and over. My husband reads "The Lord of the Rings" series every few years. I love children's literature but otherwise read only non-fiction.

Expand full comment
Margaret Anna Alice's avatar

And how could I forget James Herriot?! Although he should be read at all stages of life (then again, so should all of the authors I've mentioned).

Expand full comment
this little authoritarian's avatar

I still have my childhood copy of "When we are six" 😊

Expand full comment
Birdingmom's avatar

Me too - all the Pooh books.

Expand full comment
Margaret Anna Alice's avatar

😻😻😻

Expand full comment
Bootsorourke's avatar

The Velveteen Rabbit was my childhood fav.

Expand full comment
Margaret Anna Alice's avatar

Tearjerker! 😿

Expand full comment
BB's avatar

Don’t forget Grimm’s Fairy Tales!

Expand full comment
Datagal's avatar

And Elsa Beskow.

Expand full comment
Rosemary B's avatar

there is still hope.

Expand full comment
Plum's avatar

The best.

However I also like the one about piglet being nervous because poohs not wearing any pants.

Expand full comment
Margaret Anna Alice's avatar

😹😹😹

Expand full comment
libertate's avatar

The wonderful thing about tiggers

Is tiggers are wonderful things

Their tops are made out of rubber

Their bottoms are made out of springs

They’re bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun

But the most wonderful thing about tiggers is I’m the only one

IIIII’m the only one!

Ah, the days of innocence, before the shadow of fascist fauci tyranny darkened the land and turned frolicking felicitous kittengartners into felonious froward felines, and then into ferocious feline fighters for freedom.

Gato....?

https://twitter.com/BAMFkitty

Expand full comment
Margaret Anna Alice's avatar

😻😻😻

Expand full comment
Rosemary B's avatar

*sniff* yeah😢

Expand full comment
Montaigne's avatar

A good general rule for government:

“…doing nothing often leads to the very best of something.”-Pooh

Expand full comment
Montaigne's avatar

Pooh has a lot in common with a certain Ancient Chinese philosopher that modern China has unfortunately forgotten:

“The more restrictions and limitations there are, the more impoverished men will be … The more rules and precepts are enforced, the more bandits and crooks will be produced. Hence, we have the words of the wise [ruler]: Through my non‐​action, men are spontaneously transformed. Through my quiescence, men spontaneously become tranquil. Through my non‐​interfering, men spontaneously increase their wealth.”

The Tao of Pooh is pretty close to the Tao of Lao Tse.

Expand full comment
libertate's avatar

Lao Tse!

I love this board.

"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws."

~ Tacitus, The Annals of Imperial Rome

Expand full comment
Montaigne's avatar

I’m reminded also of the Old Testament. When the Israelites gave up their freedom and turned to a strongman, a monarch, to save them, they were warned that they were going to be exploited:

“This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots. And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots. And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants. And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants. And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the Lord will not hear you in that day. [I Sammuel 8:11-

Expand full comment
libertate's avatar

Put not your trust in princes.

~Psalm 146:3

Expand full comment
Chris M's avatar

This is also the Tao of President Coolidge, 'Silent Cal'

Expand full comment
Edward Teach's avatar

Very true. Unfortunately that's why we have something called Politician's Fallacy:

"We have to do something!"

"This is something."

"Therefore we have to do This!"

Expand full comment
DangerousVariant's avatar

Eeyore's tail falling off had nothing to do with his fourth booster.

Expand full comment
Aurora Bullealis's avatar

Thanks for noticin' my tail- that means it's workin'

Expand full comment
BB's avatar

I can’t stop laughing!

Expand full comment
kitten seeking answers's avatar

🐱hehehe🐱

Expand full comment
Bootsorourke's avatar

ha!

Expand full comment
BigT's avatar

If somehow Pooh and Piglet could have been riding in a semi…

Expand full comment
Rosemary B's avatar

So many parents I know have yanked their kittens out of government schools and are homeschooling. the only hard part is deciding which home school networks to join. I am very happy my younger daughter is going to home school her kids.

Expand full comment
Doger Badell's avatar

Justin Trudeau, the old grey Donkey, stood by the side of the stream, and looked at himself in the water. "Pathetic," he said. "That's what it is. Pathetic."

Expand full comment
LJ's avatar

Do NOT demean Donkey by comparing him to Trudeau. 🤣🤣🤣

Expand full comment
Sky's avatar

one of my favorite books from childhood (and still ! ) i love the original shepard illustrations shown here. the disney version destroyed the beauty and spirit of the original stories, as disney has done to every single classic it ever touched.

pooh would certainly prefer to be ungovernable, and would persuade piglet that compliance leads nowhere good.

Expand full comment
Plum's avatar

YES!!!!

Expand full comment
NE - Naked Emperor Newsletter's avatar

Hi gatito, I know it's a Friday but have a look at this correlation in increased mortality rates (in non-Covid deaths) as the booster programme begins.

https://nakedemperor.substack.com/p/update-correlation-between-increased

Expand full comment
Wolf J Flywheel's avatar

Everyone knows vaccines are, coincidentally, the leading cause of coincidences.

Expand full comment
QuaranTina's avatar

This is excellent

Expand full comment
Edward Teach's avatar

"Oh bother!" said Pooh, as he shoved another magazine into the receiver and racked the slide.

Expand full comment
RACO's avatar

do I see a semi truck off in the distance?

Expand full comment
UnvaxxedCanadian's avatar

Anyone who gave money to the GOFUNDME for the CDN truckers REQUEST YOUR MONEY BACK

They are giving it to charity of their choice

Resend to https://www.givesendgo.com/FreedomConvoy2022

Expand full comment
Joe's avatar

Request a chargeback from your bank. GoFundMe didn't perform the services they advertised. Will cost them $15 per chargeback and they could even get booted by their payment processor if there are enough of them.

Expand full comment
LJ's avatar

The truckers lawyers apparently have contacted them. But it may be a good idea anyway, what you said. Because if GoFundMe uses even a penny of it in a manner inconsistent with the Freedom Convoy 2022 purposes, that is cause for withdrawal and litigation.

Expand full comment
SCA's avatar

Never liked Winnie-the-Pooh.

For a really subversive children's book, read "The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes" published 1939. Best anti-stereotypes, anti-compliance-with-the-ruling-order book ever written, for any age. And if you ain't sobbing by the end...

Expand full comment
crunchymama's avatar

I love that book. Hooray for our public library.

Expand full comment
UnvaxxedCanadian's avatar

🇨🇦🇨🇦AMEN🇨🇦🇨🇦

Expand full comment
FedUpDeb's avatar

How’s it going? Are you still in Ottawa?

Expand full comment
UnvaxxedCanadian's avatar

Until Monday

It’s electric!

Expand full comment
Bootsorourke's avatar

YAYYYY! with you in spirit.

Expand full comment
Odell's avatar

yes, gatito. your books are much better! never read the filth that our mancubs are exposed to. we'll be friends forever gatito, even longer. thanks margaret anna alice, for the mancub text. :)

Expand full comment
Snork's avatar

Truck Yeah Pooh!

Expand full comment
Yuri Bezmenov's avatar

Xi Jinping is Winnie the Pooh now

Expand full comment
Lori's avatar

please do not insult Winnie the Pooh

Expand full comment
Wolf J Flywheel's avatar

It's actually a sort of insulting, behind his back, nickname for him in China. A bit like calling mobster Ben Siegel "Bugsy".

Expand full comment
Lori's avatar

Winne is pristine, the POS in China is an asshole.

Expand full comment
User's avatar
Comment deleted
Feb 4, 2022
Comment deleted
Expand full comment
Henry Balfour's avatar

How old ARE you, really?

Expand full comment
Datagal's avatar

Ungovernable, unacceptable and deplorable am I.

Expand full comment
TommyV's avatar

You, my friend, are the best!! Uplifted my Friday afternoon.

Expand full comment
Linelle MacDougal's avatar

Just wonderful and brilliant as always .

Expand full comment
LJ's avatar

I’m surprised no ones mentioned Tigger!?! On this post. Cat?

Expand full comment
LJ's avatar

I know I’m supposed to be a brave cat but sometimes I’m more like piglet ❤️

The innocence our world has tried to steal from us....

Expand full comment
JRAlmo's avatar

So good

Expand full comment
Evil Harry's avatar

I never read the Winnie the Pooh books as a child, though I do remember reading some Peter Rabbit.

Both were corrupted for me after I joined the Marines and discovered the parody books,

"Peter rabbit Tank killer" and "Pooh goes apeshit".

DO NOT READ if you are easily offended and do not want your childhood memories destroyed.

Expand full comment
David Huber's avatar

back in the 1970s I took my two children out of public school in California, (elementary) I was seeing their tests come back with lots of teacher mistakes. I went to the school and wanted it fixed, telling them that my child cannot learn when a wrong answer on a test was counted as correct and a right answer was counted as wrong. I was told by the administration that the teacher does not correct the tests, but aides do and the aides are always different so there was no way to correct the situation. So out of school my kids came and I put them into a private school, which I could not really afford, but the alternative was a bad education. I sense that things are even worse now. I also did a stretch of home schooling when things did not go well at the public school in high school years.

Expand full comment