I love Ogden Nash, sometimes called The Bard of Baltimore. He wrote crazy poetry. The poem I have in my head is
When called by a panther,
Don’t anther.
He wrote wonderful stuff on all sorts of topics. I just bought another collection of his poems today. The introduction by his daughter related a story she felt was indicative of the sort of person he was.
As a little boy, he walked with his grandfather. He didn’t realize they were on a walk to a trolley stop. When they came to the stop, Ogden, in love with anything about trains, said,”Grandad, look! Train tracks!” His grandfather told him they were trolley tracks, not train tracks. Ogden was very disappointed because he was hoping for a train.
“Well, maybe they are train tracks.”
“No, Ogden, they are trolley tracks and we are waiting here for a trolley to come along.”
Shortly, a trolley came. Ogden muttered, “Naughty trolley, riding along the train tracks.”
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Switch to lunch at my aunt’s house when I was ten. My cousin announced before lunch that she would like jelly sandwiches. Her mother said they didn’t have any jelly. At the table, we found a plate of baloney sandwiches. My cousin asked me to pass that "plate of jelly sandwiches". I did and she took one and ate it happily.
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Sometimes, as Garrison Keillor said, one must stare reality right in the eye and deny it.
