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Tuesday, January 16, 2024

'How lucky we were . . . and are'


"It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn't use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words like 'What about lunch?'" – A.A. Milne
 
  Alan Alexander Milne, who gave us one of the most lovable and lasting figures in childrens’ literature – Winnie The Pooh -- was born in England in January of 1882.   His amazing success with “That Silly Old Bear” overshadowed his other writing, which was really quite amazing in its own right.    
 
During a 20-year period from about 1906 to 1925 he published 18 plays, 3 novels, and was a screenwriter for the early British cinema, including four films produced by up-and-coming actor Leslie Howard, who gained everlasting fame as Ashley Wilkes in Gone With The Wind.  Howard actually got his start acting in Milne’s play, Mr. Pim Passes By.

But Milne is most famous for his two Pooh books about a boy named Christopher Robin, named after his son Christopher Robin Milne, and Christopher’s menagerie of stuffed animals headed up by a teddy bear named Edward.  Both A.A. and Christopher loved a bear at the London Zoo named Winnie and a swan swimming there named Pooh.  So, instead of Edward, the bear got those combined names and the rest, as they say… 

  
A.A. Milne & son Christopher

Through Pooh, Milne gave us a conduit to many great terms, including  “Being a little eleven-o’clockish.”  It’s when you’re getting tired of the morning and wishing you had more energy, or something to eat – but it’s too late for a mid-morning pick-me-up and too early for lunch.  I’ve found it also works for describing other things, too, like feeling dragged out or unable to put any more effort into something. 

He also noted, "How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard." 

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