The Fourth Day/The Fifth Day

THE FOURTH DAY (Oct. 4, 2011)

Flying the B-17 (VHS) – great visuals of a great World War II aircraft.

Map of Oklahoma’s Green Country – Cubby sees a bit of the area in which he lives. “Oklahoma” resembles the “Indian Territory” of the Abe Lincoln map.

“R Is for Rocket,” “The Rocket”, Ray Bradbury (sf ss) – More amazing use of language in these short stories.

“The Chronic Argonauts,” H. G. Wells (sf ss) – the prototype of The Time Machine introduces another amazing concept to go with space travel – travel through time!

Discovering the World, Neil Grant (jv history) – The Age of Discovery from Columbus to Magellan to Hernando de Soto. We learn a lot about history, geography, and the countries and civilizations of the world, from Eskimos to Incas to China. Cubby could now draw a fairly accurate map of the world. The old explorers are admirable in some ways, but most were hell-bent on conquest and enslaving those they discovered! The “Pizarro” story is here repeated (first read in “Wild Animals I Have Known”).

The Cat in the Hat Comes Back, Dr. Seuss – Here is more whimsy from Seuss to me, with Little Cat A to Little Cat Z.

“Superman’s War on Crime,” comic strips 1/30 – 2/18, 1939 – introduces Lois Lane, lady reporter.

Three Comic Strips. 1/3/2000 – including the final “Peanuts” by Charles Schulz. Cubby doesn’t know Snoopy – yet.

“Monsters – American Style” – article from unidentified DC comic circa 1968. Eerie introduction to Bigfoot, a year before the Patterson film. Freaked me out as a kid, but Cubby just finds it interesting.

Heavy Metal (soundtrack cd) – Wow! Some great choices on this album! Cubby likes rock ‘n’ roll. (Note I wouldn’t show a youngster like Cubby the movie Heavy Metal!)

THE FIFTH DAY (Oct. 5, 2011)

“John’s My Name,” “O Ugly Bird,” Manly Wade Wellman (f ss) – We learn about backwoods country ways, and we meet the frightening Ugly Bird.

And To Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street!, Dr. Seuss (jv) – his first book of whimsy.

A Gryphon in the Garden, Elsa Marston (jv) – neat griffin drawings. The bird-beast has gone from a single drawing in Animal Ghosts to one character among several in Sir Toby to a starring role. But what of “real” griffins?

Disney’s Extreme Sports Fun: “Canine Caddy,” “How to Play Baseball,” “The Hockey Champ,” “Double Dribble,” “How to Play Football,” “Mickey’s Polo Team,” “Tennis Racket,” “Goofy Gymnastics.” Cartoons by someone other than Warner.

Krista Hartman letter #1, Nov. 18, 1980 – my favorite pen-pal correspondence from the times before email. Cubby thinks it’s addressed to him. We mainly discussed Andre Norton tales, so Cubby knows of an author he has to brush up on (or he’ll be all at sea).

“Ghosts I Have Known,” Vida Herbison; “Cutting the Hedge,” Magaret Stanley-Wrench (poem); “Second to None,” Wendy Wood – items from The Countryman, Vol. LIV, no. 4, Winter 1957. More on these here “ghosts”.

“Werewolves in Sussex,” Doris W. Metcalf – The Countryman, Spring 1958. And now something called werewolves, when we barely know what a wolf is. That will change.

Fifteen books down (“Mulberry” is in a multi-story volume) = 1/320 of the way done.