ANOTHER NEW PINKLISH WORD?

LONDON--This just in. Sam the Tiger (left) has been hot on the trail of yet another Pinklish word. (Previous discovery, Jan 31, 2007 post)

PONKCORN
(pronounced: pong*'korn)
noun
1) popcorn you are enjoying inside a movie that's all pinkly and lovely

(as in: "We had ponkcorn inside Charlotte's web")

There is, however, some controversy surrounding this latest discovery and serious questions as to whether its etymological origins are indeed Pinklish. Why would it not be called "pinkcorn" for heavens sake? some Pinklish scholars are asking. (Like the notorious Professor of Pinklish--Suley Lloyd-Heap of Pinksford University in Pinkly-cum-Sparkly in the heart of the Pinkswolds).

But for Sam the Tiger there can be no doubt. Ponkcorn is indeed part of the Pinklish language. How does he know? Because first it sounds much more tasty and noisy, and second, it can be yellow or any color and still be Ponkcorn and doesn't have to be just pink. Is he against Pink popcorn, then? No. Far from it. It's just a matter of accuracy. "Basically," says Sam. "Pink Ponkcorn is what that would be."

It's not easy being a baby

Think about it. You have everyone picking you up all the time, and telling you stuff you can't understand, and stopping you from doing anything you want to do, and feeding you stuff you don't even know what it is. And if you try and say something, they stuff a plug in your mouth.

Sometimes on a day like that, there's only one thing for it: screech and bellow and cry and wail and scream your head off. Which is what Annabel is doing here.

Her big brothers and sister are reading to her from THE manual on baby behavior. Which is very helpful of them. I think from this picture, though, she knows very well how to be a baby (and is rather good at it) and doesn't need anyone to tell her.

But seriously Annabel is very lucky. After all, she has Andrew, Daniel, Sarah, and Thomas (all four of them star in HOW TO BE A BABY--strangely enough, also on a pink sofa.) And the quadruplets are very lucky because they have baby Annabel.

But no prizes for guessing who has who wound around their little finger... (clue: she's the littlest one with dark hair)

(BTW: if you're anywhere near Cold Spring, NY, this Saturday, stop by Merritt Books where I'll be reading and signing HOW TO BE A BABY and HANDBAG FRIENDS at 11am-1pm)

my blog interview with eucatastrophe

Love this blog run by Dan Cruver. Check it out. It's a very thought-provoking, moving, inspiring blog by a really cool guy who loves my new storybook bible, which means he is not only really cool but also really extremely smart (!)--no, truly, it is a huge compliment (and he really does know his stuff. He's a Professor of Bible apart from anything, but once you start reading his blog you get the idea.) Anyway, he was kind enough to interview me (to read interview click here <+> ) about what it was like writing The Jesus Storybook Bible.

I knew I'd love his blog the minute I read the quote in the mast head (plus I learned a new word, coined by Tolkein, "eucatastrophe" which I thought at first was an alarming mix of catastrophe and an apostrophe--like some kind of unfortunate grammatical error that might lead to terrible things like the downfall of empires. But, happily nothing of the sort--it means "happy ending." Except Tolkein believed joy doesn't end and neither does the Story... so it's only an approximate translation):

"The story begins and ends in joy." J R R Tolkein.