Posted on 11/03/2005 10:28:48 PM PST by TheMadLurker
If you have a sense of humor, and can poke fun at yourself:
http://www.angelfire.com/poetry/fear4republic/
I've never read Penrod.
LOL!
It is a very cute bit of Americana, the bit with Fanchon and the"Slingo Sligo Slide" makes you realize that the more things change the more they stay the same.
a worthwhile reading list would have penrod and sam as well as a great deal of kipling and other books where there is a good guy and a bad guy - even if you do not agree with the author's definition of good and bad and the good guys win and get to go home all kids need heroes for role models not drug-dealing types whose main claim to fame is their money you might not like the really old john wayne movies but he was, by God, the good guy and he won
Weird. I get an error when I click on the link.
Howya tulip!!
Penrod sat morosely upon the back fence and gazed with envy at Duke, his wistful dog.
A bitter soul dominated the various curved and angular surfaces known by a careless world as the face of Penrod Schofield. Except in solitude, that face was almost always cryptic and emotionless; for Penrod had come into his twelfth year wearing an expression carefully trained to be inscrutable. Since the world was sure to misunderstand everything, mere defensive instinct prompted him to give it as little as possible to lay hold upon.
Nothing is more impenetrable than the face of a boy who has learned this, and Penrod's was habitually as fathomless as the depth of his hatred this morning for the literary activities of Mrs. Lora Rewbush -- an almost universally respected fellow citizen, a lady of charitable and poetic inclinations, and one of his own mother's most intimate friends.
Mrs. Lora Rewbush had written something which she called "The Children's Pageant of the Table Round," and it was to be performed in public that very afternoon at the Women's Arts and Guild Hall for the benefit of the Coloured Infants' Betterment Society. And if any flavour of sweetness remained in the nature of Penrod Schofield after the dismal trials of the school-week just past, that problematic, infinitesimal remnant was made pungent acid by the imminence of his destiny to form a prominent feature of the spectacle, and to declaim the loathsome sentiments of a character named upon the programme the Child Sir Lancelot.
After each rehearsal he had plotted escape, and only ten days earlier there had been a glimmer of light: Mrs. Lora Rewbush caught a very bad cold, and it was hoped it might develop into pneumonia; but she recovered so quickly that not even a rehearsal of the Children's Pageant was postponed. Darkness closed in. Penrod had rather vaguely debated plans for a self-mutilation such as would make his appearance as the Child Sir Lancelot inexpedient on public grounds; it was a heroic and attractive thought, but the results of some extremely sketchy preliminary experiments caused him to abandon it.
There was no escape; and at last his hour was hard upon him. Therefore he brooded on the fence and gazed with envy at his wistful Duke.
The dog's name was undescriptive of his person, which was obviously the result of a singular series of mesalliances. He wore a grizzled moustache and indefinite whiskers; he was small and shabby, and looked like an old postman. Penrod envied Duke because he was sure Duke would never be compelled to be a Child Sir Lancelot. He thought a dog free and unshackled to go or come as the wind listeth. Penrod forgot the life he led Duke.
john wayne was fantastic.
even "the conquerer" is worth watching.
"the searchers" is among the best movies ever made.
don't really care for movies making heros out of pimps and hos and pushers, myself - I think BET and EmptyVee ought to be driven from the air.
How are you doing, IT?
ah!
do not recall the alligator hunting must re-read my mother has a copy of the book - next time i go to virginia i'll snag it
Thanks, Bob.
That works. Thanks.
MUST read penrod hysterical it may be "boys' reading" but i enjoyed it all the same
I bookmarked the site that Harmless Teddy Bear posted, so I can read it when I get a chance. I have to get through some tax stuff first. :-)
Doing fine!
that IS good. well written.
thanks for the link to the full text, HTB
You know that novel would get the Huck Finn treatment if you gave it to children today
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