March 1, 2002

8:22 AM

Tomorrow, March 2, is the 98th birthday of Dr. Suess,and Kristian (the author of the link) suggested to me that we through him a party on the web. If you have a website or blog please dedicate your posts today or tomorrow to honor this most remarkable man, his legacy of stories and what impact they have had on your life. Happy Birthday Dr. Suess!
posted by Brilliantcrank (29 comments total)

Would you, could you, do you think
Could you find a better link ?

One not from the corporate man
One that's from a silly fan?

You could search here or there
The Doctor is found everywhere!
posted by ColdChef at 8:38 AM on March 1, 2002

I would, I could, link I think
Seem they are everywhere, a kitchen sink.

Give credit where credit due
Not fill a post with six links or two.

posted by Brilliantcrank at 8:45 AM on March 1, 2002

Best Suess Link Ever!
posted by bob bisquick at 8:58 AM on March 1, 2002

'Throw' not 'through',
To me it looks,
Like our friend Akula
Did not read his books.
posted by Frasermoo at 9:01 AM on March 1, 2002

There's more to Seuss than Cats Hats Green Eggs and Ham.
posted by Frasermoo at 9:04 AM on March 1, 2002

March, month of finals and large hats outside the Geisel Library.
posted by rschram at 9:05 AM on March 1, 2002

When using Bisquick's wedding vows
First check the history of wheres and hows.
posted by liam at 9:12 AM on March 1, 2002

Doh! you're right,
I, AkulaIX, cannot write.

I always hated tests of vocabulary
They always bursted many a capillary.

But do not excuse this birthday bash
Or Hulk I will bring to go smash.
posted by Brilliantcrank at 9:16 AM on March 1, 2002

Could you, would you, with a goat?
posted by bingo at 9:21 AM on March 1, 2002

Not with a goat, but on a boat.
posted by Brilliantcrank at 9:21 AM on March 1, 2002

I happen to go to UCSD. There's an excellent collection of the original sketches stored at Geisel Library (named after Dr. Seuss.) Pretty neat stuff.
posted by rschram at 9:28 AM on March 1, 2002

Whoa... that was SO trippy. I just logged in with my own user name... and I posted as rschram??? wtf...
posted by aznblader at 9:28 AM on March 1, 2002

Dr Seuss is dead, his corpse now paste
a birthday party seems a waste.
posted by TiggleTaggleTiger at 9:34 AM on March 1, 2002

Apart from him, only Benjamin Spock equally deserved the Doctor title. the Star Trek authors who make one have to add "Benjamin" to the guy who's responsible for so many happy childhoods have a lot to answer for. Thanks, Akula IX.

P.S. I bet no one has a pristine copy of a Dr Seuss book in his home. Biggest sign of appreciation ever.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 9:47 AM on March 1, 2002

aznblader i think you will see
that you and rschram are close in IP
but if that's not the case, then I suggest MeTa bugs
and to akula for the seuss tip, i send you hugs!
posted by macadamiaranch at 9:48 AM on March 1, 2002

Incidentally tomorrow is also the 20th anniversary of the death of Phillip K. Dick. Not that this has anything to do with anything else in this thread... sorry... I'll go now.
posted by wfrgms at 10:19 AM on March 1, 2002

I never understood Dr. Seuss. A dreary, second-rate cartoonist and not particularly inspired rhymester. To whom would I unfavorably compare him? Edward Lear, for one. George Herriman, for another. On the other hand, as one can see from the postings here, he is beloved by many, and contributed to the happiness of their childhoods. Who can argue with that?
posted by Faze at 10:34 AM on March 1, 2002

Tiggle Taggle Tiger you sound so bitter
Could it be you had to watch Glitter?
posted by Brilliantcrank at 10:35 AM on March 1, 2002

"Then something goes CRASH!!!
We yell, "What was that?"
We look and we see him,
The Edge-in-a-Hat!"
posted by prolific at 10:35 AM on March 1, 2002

I hesitate to ask, but.....

I overhead (yes, trouble is just around the corner from 'overheard') someone talking about Suess having problems with drugs at some point during his life. I did an intensive search last night but couldn't find ANY such info on the web, and am now wondering if it wasn't just the words of a confused parent. (It was Dr. Suess night at the kids' school.)

Anyway, if anyone actually knows anything about this, a link is appreciated.
posted by nwduffer at 10:39 AM on March 1, 2002

Has anyone ever seen some of Giesel's political cartoons from WWII? Some of them are quite fierce in their attacks on the Germans and Japanese... on a completely different note, I love the book, "The Secret Art of Dr. Seuss." It's mostly paintings--some are scary, some are erotic, but all are beautiful. Definitely not aimed at kids.
posted by mariko at 10:41 AM on March 1, 2002

I *heart* Prolific. That poem will make me smile through the weekend.
posted by ColdChef at 11:13 AM on March 1, 2002

Miguel: P.S. I bet no one has a pristine copy of a Dr Seuss book in his home. Biggest sign of appreciation ever.

"Six By Seuss." I can see it from here.

And about Spock and Star Trek. You don't have to add "Benjamin" to the doctor's name, just add "Dr." The guy on Star Trek is MISTER Spock.


posted by bingo at 11:20 AM on March 1, 2002

ColdChef: I saw a fully illustrated version of that, yonks ago on Compuserve. Unfortunately, I couldn't find it again.
posted by prolific at 11:33 AM on March 1, 2002

By the way, what exactly is the connection between UCSD and Dr. Seuss? Did he donate a bunch of money for the library or something?

And yet Dartmouth has no public building named for him. I think we're going to have to work on that.
posted by mzanatta at 12:15 PM on March 1, 2002

You can't trust guys named Kristian.
posted by tankboy at 12:32 PM on March 1, 2002

By the way, what exactly is the connection between UCSD and Dr. Seuss?

He donated both money and sketches. Seuss money allows us to get stuff held here, as well as show off the war cartoons.

Reason #78 for me not to login to public computers on campus. metafilter.com http requests must get cached in some central Net connection. Often rschram's cookies travel inexplicably between computers and labs. The server is, I think, named Horton.
posted by rschram at 12:34 PM on March 1, 2002

I have long argued that Dr. Suess is the only author in the English language with a legitimate claim to superiority over Shakespeare. While Shakespeare was undeniably brilliant, his writing is limited to a single meter, iambic pentameter.

Dr. Suess, by contrast, writes equally brilliantly in two meters. Consider his two seminal works. Green Eggs and Ham is written in iambic tetrameter:

I will not eat green eggs and ham
I do not like them Sam I Am!

By contrast, The Cat in the Hat is written in anapestic (hurrah!) tetrameter:

But our fish said, no! no! Make that cat go away
Tell that cat in the hat you do not wish to play.

(Also, there are no crackpots running around claiming that Ted Geisel wasn't really Dr. Suess, the way there are with those Devere idiots.)
posted by anapestic at 12:43 PM on March 1, 2002

Those "political cartoons" seem to be simply ads for buying US savings bonds. The depiction of japan is a little unsettling, but then the "chinese" neighbor in Breakfast at Tiffany's wasn't considered racist in the early '60's, so I guess it's just a social era thing.
posted by mdn at 1:01 PM on March 1, 2002