A Trivial Quiz And My Totally Biased Answer

Question: What do these books and authors have in common?

Canterbury Tales

The Bible

Shakespeare

Walt Whitman

Huck Finn

Tolkien

Dr. Seuss

Answer: You linguists out there might be thinking that these are the definitive English works.  Well, if you are, you're wrong.

Name a better character than Piglet.  Hamlet--close but no cigar.  How about Pooh?  Sorry, Bilbo.  How about Tigger?  Puck is Shakespeare's best attempt, but Tigger is better.  And he's not obnoxious.

The definitive English work is Winnie the Pooh because it is really funny and I said so.  You need to stop arguing and go read it, okay, because then you'll know that I'm totally biased and right.

A Bear of Very Little Brain

Pooh sat down on a large stone, and tried to think this out. It sounded to him like a riddle, and he was never much good at riddles, being a Bear of Very Little Brain. So he sang Cottleston Pie instead:

Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie,
A fly can't bird, but a bird can fly.
Ask me a riddle and I reply:
"Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie."

That was the first verse. When he had finished it, Eeyore didn't actually say that he didn't like it, so Pooh very kindly sang the second verse to him:

Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie,
A fish can't whistle and neither can I.
Ask me a riddle and I reply:
"Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie."

Eeyore still said nothing at all, so Pooh hummed the third verse quietly to himself:

Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie,
Why does a chicken, I don't know why.
Ask me a riddle and I reply:
"Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie."

"That's right," said Eeyore. "Sing. Umty-tiddly, umty-too. Here we go gathering Nuts and May. Enjoy yourself."
"I am," said Pooh.
"Some can," said Eeyore.

Murphy's law says that if anything can go wrong, it will. I don't think life is that bad.

My own law would be split into 2 parts:

1. When you really need to think, you will find that you are a Bear of Very Little Brain.
2. When a positive attitude is key, you'll find that your heart is at Pooh's Corner with a certain gloomy burro.

So, life doesn't abide by Murphy's law. Everything works out perfectly in life except when you need it to. So, life is great if you don't really mind the particulars or the timing.

You could care about nothing, but that makes me--and maybe most people?--miserable.

So, how do you care about things without caring too much?

I'm a Bear of Very Little Brain right now, so I'll defer to Dr. Seuss:

Some are old. And some are new. Some are sad. And some are glad. And some are very, very bad.
Why are they sad and glad and bad?
I do not know. Go ask your dad.

Let's hang out at Pooh's Corner and think, think, think. Let's just not think too hard all the time.

Grin and Bear of Very Little Brain it.