Happy Birthday Dr, Seuss

[Amelia]

Google remembers Dr. Seuss

What an excellent excuse to spend an hour at Seussville's Playground!

by Annie Barrett

Entertainment Weekly

Mar 2, 2009

Happy birthday to Theodore Geisel, the author formally known as Dr. Seuss. He'd have been 105 today, and some of his most famous characters have taken over today's Google nameplate. Whoa, I'd kind of love to read a Dr. Seuss book about the Internet. Actually, this passage from Oh, The Places You'll Go! could easily apply:

You can get so confused that you'll start in to race

down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace

and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space,

headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.

The Waiting Place...

...for people just waiting.

That's the spirit! Anyway, head over to Seussville.com's Playground to achieve remastery of some really basic vocabulary. My favorite activity was the Horton Hears a Who! StoryMaker (pictured), but you may prefer the rather more challenging One Fish Two Fish Concentration, which is a dead ringer for the "Bonus Game 4: Match Cards" level of Super Mario 3. I'm cool.

WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT DR. SEUSS ?

Click to take a Dr. Seuss quiz

[Cosmin M.]

Questions:

1) What is Dr. Seuss full name ?

2) When was Dr. Seuss born ?

3) When did Dr. Seuss die ?

4) About how many children’s books did Dr. Seuss publish ?

5) How many television specials have been made based on his books ?

6) How many movies have been made base on his books ?

7) How many Broadway musicals have been made based on his books ?

8) Besides children’s books what other two fields did he work in ?

9) What other pen name did he use for books that he wrote but that were illustrated by other authors ?

10) Match the following Dr. Seuss book titles to the implied moral in their stories.

A- The Lorax 1- Anti- materialisim

B- The Sneetches 2- environmentalism & anti-consumerism

C- The Butter Battle Book 3- Racial Equality

D- Yertle the Turtle 4- Anti-Fascism & Anti Authoritarianism

E- How the Grinch stole Christmas 5- The Arms Race

F- Horton Hears a Who! 6- Isolationism

11) How many of his books can you name?

Answers:

1) Theodor Seuss Geisel

2) March 2, 1904

3) September 24, 1991

4) Over 60 children’s books

5) Eleven Television Specials

6) Three films

7) One Broadway musical

8) He worked as an illustrator for advertising campaigns and as a political cartoonist.

9) Theo. LeSieg

10)A- The Lorax 2- environmentalism & anti-consumerism

B- The Sneetches 3- Racial Equality

C- The Butter Battle Book 5- The Arms Race

D- Yertle the Turtle 4- Anti-Fascism & Anti Authoritarianism

E- How the Grinch stole Christmas 1- Anti- materialisim

F- Horton Hears a Who! 6- Isolationism

11) How many of his books can you name?

As Dr. Seuss:

And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street (1937), The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins (1938), The King's Stilts (1939), The Seven Lady Godivas (1940), Horton Hatches the Egg (1940), McElligot's Pool (Caldecott Honor Book, 1947), Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose (1948), Bartholomew and the Oobleck (Caldecott Honor Book, 1949) , If I Ran the Zoo (Caldecott Honor Book, 1950) , Scrambled Eggs Super! (1953) , Horton Hears a Who! (1954) , On Beyond Zebra! (1955) , If I Ran the Circus (1956) , How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1957) , The Cat in the Hat (1957) , The Cat in the Hat Comes Back (1958) , Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories (1958) , Happy Birthday to You! (1959) , Green Eggs and Ham (1960) , One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish (1960) The Sneetches and Other Stories (1961) , Dr. Seuss's Sleep Book (1962) , Dr. Seuss's ABC (1963) , Hop on Pop (1963) , Fox in Socks (1965) , I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew (1965) , The Cat in the Hat Song Book (1967) , The Foot Book (1968) , I Can Lick 30 Tigers Today! and Other Stories (1969) , My Book about ME (Illustrated by Roy McKie, 1970) , I Can Draw It Myself (1970) , Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?: Dr. Seuss's Book of Wonderful Noises! (1970) , The Lorax (1971) , Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now! (1972) , Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are? (1973) , The Shape of Me and Other Stuff (1973) , There's a Wocket in My Pocket! (1974) , Great Day for Up! (Illustrated by Quentin Blake, 1974) , Oh, the Thinks You Can Think! (1975) , The Cat's Quizzer (1976) , I Can Read with My Eyes Shut! (1978) , Oh Say Can You Say? (1979) , Hunches in Bunches (1982) , The Butter Battle Book (1984) , You're Only Old Once! : A Book for Obsolete Children (1986) , I Am NOT Going to Get Up Today! (Illustrated by James Stevenson, 1987) , Oh, the Places You'll Go! (1990) , Daisy-Head Mayzie (Posthumous, 1995) , My Many Colored Days (Posthumous, illustrated by Steve Johnson with Lou Fancher, 1996) , Hooray for Diffendoofer Day! (Posthumous, from notes, with Jack Prelutsky and Lane Smith, 1998) , Gerald McBoing-Boing (Posthumous, based on story and film, 2000)

As Theo. LeSieg:

Ten Apples Up on Top! (Illustrated by Roy McKie, 1961) , I Wish That I Had Duck Feet (Illustrated by B Tobey, 1965) , Come over to My House (Illustrated by Richard Erdoes, 1966) , The Eye Book (Illustrated by Joe Mathieu/Roy McKie, 1968) , I Can Write (Illustrated by Roy McKie, 1971) , In a People House (Illustrated by Roy McKie, 1972) , Wacky Wednesday (Illustrated by George Booth, 1974) , The Many Mice of Mr. Brice (Illustrated by Roy McKie, 1974) , Would You Rather Be a Bullfrog? (Illustrated by Roy McKie, 1975) , Hooper Humperdink...? Not Him! (Illustrated by Charles E. Martin, 1976) , Please Try to Remember the First of Octember! (Illustrated by Art Cummings, 1977) , Maybe You Should Fly a Jet! Maybe You , Should Be a Vet! (Illustrated by Michael J. Smollin, 1981) , The Tooth Book (Illustrated by Joe Mathieu/Roy McKie, 1989)

As Rosetta Stone

Because a Little Bug Went Ka-choo! (Illustrated by Michael Frith, 1975)

[Cosmin M.]

Rosetta Stone

This just might be a coincidence, but Rosetta Stone is also a name of this Mac tool which helps you to open programs that need assistance. (ex. a application that only works for OS 9 or some other OS or OSX.)

Just thought I would point that out.

[Planey]

And that just shows how how stupid and ignorant I am.

I thought the Rosetta Stone referred to the stone tablet that enabled them to finally translate hieroglyphics.

Must be my Australian heritage that leads to such massive ignorance...

Graeme

[Bravus]

Heh, don't be too sarky with him, Graeme, he's only 15. Not old enough to have read the hieroglyphics in the original, like us.

[Bravus]

I'm a huge fan of Dr Seuss, and loved reading the books aloud to the kids - and still do occasionally for nostalgic reasons.

My daughter Alex and I even wrote a bad pastiche of his style. Here's the result (from my blog, 5 years ago):

Alex (she’ll be 11 in a couple of weeks) had an assignment from school to write what she thought would happen after the ending of Dr Seuss’ ‘Butter Battle Book’. The book is about the Zooks, who butter their bread on the bottom, and the Yooks, who butter their bread on the top (shades of Swift’s ‘big-endians’). The book recounts the escalating war and the devices the Yooks and Zooks build to battle the heretics on the other side. It ends with a young Yook watching as his grandpa holds a small but powerful bomb near the wall separating the two lands, and a Zook also holds a bomb, and ends with the line: “we’ll see, we’ll see…”

Alex kind of misunderstood the assignment, and thought she had to write the ending of the book. So the two of us sat down and wrote this together:

So they stood and they stood, on the wall in the day

Each holding his bomb, in a carefulsome way

Neither wanting to drop, neither wanting to give

Neither wanting to kill and both wanting to live

Then I thought a big thought, and it near knocked me over

Will it work? If it does, we'll all be in clover

So I went to my grandpa and I whispered a whisper

And he smiled, so I whispered to my mama and sister

And they whispered to more people, more and still more

And my super big thought went from window to door

And from Yooktown to Zookland it flew in a hurry

People started to smile and forgot how to worry

"We can butter our bread on the side, on the crust!

That's much better than blowing each other to dust!"

So the Zooks and the Yooks, and all of their friends

Quite closely avoided their dangerous ends

© Alex Geelan and David Geelan, 2004

[Planey]

I might be able to blame my Australian heritage for my stupidity but I can't blame it for my use of sarcasm or my incredibly poor judgment.

I manage that stuff completely on my own.

Sorry Cosmin - I should have known better.

Graeme

[Bravus]

S'all good mate - and it's great to see you around here again. You've been missed.

[Neil D]

- and it's great to see you around here again. You've been missed.

......and I will vouch for that!

[Liz]

Bravus, what a great ending....I hope she got an A. I really enjoyed Dr. Seuss too.

[Gail]

I love Dr. Seuss, too. One of the things I would like to accomplish before I die is to go on a date to a library or bookstore and read Dr. Seuss books to each other.

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

I never read Dr. Seuss as a child. Never even *heard* of him then. But I've read some of his work since, and I probably would have enjoyed it as a kid, as I've always loved reading.

[Outta Here]

My favorite Dr. Seuss story is The Lorax.

Interesting bit about Rosetta Stone. The first thing that comes to mind when I hear the words is the spendy language-learning software. Apparently, there are many disambiguations.

Quote:

The Rosetta Stone may refer to:

• The Rosetta Stone, a granite stone found in the Egyptian city of Rosetta that was crucial to the deciphering of Egyptian hieroglyphs
• Rosetta Stone (band), a British gothic-rock band formed in 1988
• Rosetta Stone (1970s band), a rock band formed in 1977 by ex-Bay City Roller Ian Mitchell
• Rosetta Stone (software), language learning software developed by Fairfield Language Technologies
• "Rosetta Stone", a song by Kristin Hersh performed by Throwing Muses
• "Rosetta Stoned", a song on the album 10,000 Days by Tool
• "Rosetta Stone", a nickname and pen name for Dr. Seuss. His book Because a Little Bug Went Ka-choo was released under this name

[Planey]

Although I believe that the "original" was the granite stone found in Rosetta, all the others are derivative of that.

Graeme

[Gail]

Gotta tell ya how nice it is to see you again, Planey buddy!

[Dottie]

I never liked Dr. Seuss until recently. I don't remember when I first saw something by him, but it seemed totally stupid, and as I was trying to get my children to read truth, not fantasy, I avoided it at all costs. Those were children 1 through 3, now aged 40 down to 30.

But...when my youngest came along about 7 1/2 years ago, and had difficulty with his speaking because of hypotonia, I found the reason for the strange language. But this is the first time that I have ever heard that there were peacenik reasons for his subject matter.

[Bravus]

Um, the 'peaceniks' here would be me and my daughter - please don't blame our 'sins' on Dr Seuss!

[Dottie]

I knew already that you are peaceniks, but I still love you; you're my brother!