HOW FASCINATING?

This blog is one of 93 blogs nominated for the Most Fascinating Blog of 2012 Award! It was this posting about P L Travers and Mary Poppins that won me the nomination from a pool of over 2,300 submissions!


And now you, gentle reader, can now take part in voting it the MFB of 2012!

UPDATE: Voting is now closed

A VALENTINE VERSARY

A
VALENTINE
Greeting
from one of my all-time favourite versifiers,

Mr OGDEN NASH

To My Valentine

More than a catbird hates a cat,
Or a criminal hates a clue,
Or the Axis hates the United States,
That's how much I love you.

I love you more than a duck can swim,
And more than a grapefruit squirts,
I love you more than a gin rummy is a bore,
And more than a toothache hurts.

As a shipwrecked sailor hates the sea,
Or a juggler hates a shove,
As a hostess detests unexpected guests,
That's how much you I love.

I love you more than a wasp can sting,
And more than the subway jerks,
I love you as much as a beggar needs a crutch,
And more than a hangnail irks.

I swear to you by the stars above,
And below, if such there be,
As the High Court loathes perjurious oathes,
That's how you're loved by me.

Image: Autograph and self-portrait by Ogden Nash

WHAT THE *******?

HAPPY 200th BIRTHDAY
to
CHARLES DICKENS
(7 February 1812–9 June 1870)

"He is a wonderfully accomplished man — most extraordinarily accomplished — reads — hem — reads every novel that comes out; I mean every novel that — hem — that has any fashion in it, of course. The fact is, that he did find so much in the books he read, applicable to his own misfortunes, and did find himself in every respect so much like the heroes — because of course he is conscious of his own superiority, as we all are, and very naturally — that he took to scorning everything, and became a genius."

- Miss Knag speaking of her brother, Mr. Mortimer Knag,
a stationer and keeper of a small circulating library, in
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1838-9)

Caricature of Charles Dickens by Court Jones.