Olivia received the book – Runny Babbit by Shel Silverstein – for Christmas. I am sure my sister thought this would be a fun book for Eric and I to read to Olivia. That we would get a Kick out of it. We are not amused. As some people are willing to point out, Eric and I are not the best enunciators. What we excel at instead is mumbling. (perhaps this is why we love it so much when Willy Wonka yells MUMBLER! At that Television kid in the New Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie) We enjoy that half confused look people give us when ever we talk. And that is most likely why we are not amused by Runny Babbit. One can not mumble through it. One must read it slowly and enunciate carefully. Here is a sample:
PLOPPY SIG REANS HIS CLOOM
Said Ploppy Sig to Runny Babbit,
“May I use your broom?”
Said Runny Babbit, “Yes, fut birst,
Please let me ree your soom.
Oh dilthy firty swine,
Whoever thought your room would be
As mig a bess as mine?”
See when you go fast and mumble you mess it up by correcting the line by mistake and then you stutter talk and have to start over and then your daughter does not get to guess what it means because you have slipped and revealed the real words. And this is all very annoying after a long day of work. But it is truly great fun, when your Grandfather reads it to you and gets just as big a kick out of it as you do. And that is why we are going to ship this book back to GR with Grandpa Rice so he can enjoy reading it over the phone to Olivia during their weekly call…
Or perhaps we will just hid the book and only bring it out on weekends and vacation days. Days when everyone is rested and up to the challenge of reading slowly.
RUNNY BAKES A TATH
Runny had to bake a tath
Before they’d sive him gupper.
He got so tungry in the hub,
He ate the rat of mubber.
He chewed his dubber rucky up,
He gulped boap subbles, too.
But what upset his mamma most
Was shrinking the dampoo.
(hmm I wonder what the reaction at school would be if Olivia starting saying dampoo…)
4 comments:
Brilliant! This sounds like a book I need to get for my sisters, as we three are accused of enunciating so precisely.... Not to mention our grade-school love-affair with the Muppet production of The Frog Prince, in which the princess is cursed to say everything wackbird... I mean, backward.
Beth, this post is so funny! I tried to read your examples aloud and had a hard time indeed.
And you also reminded me that I need more dampoo ...
What you need to understand is that our gifts were meant to torture you... the pretty pretty princess games should have been the biggest clue. Or maybe what I really mean is that it was a nice blend of enjoyment for Olivia and Jack but torture for you guys.
Fave hun!
Great book (or is it breat gook?--ask Olivia, she knows!)! Keep the book there. I look forward to reading it to Olivia when we come. All the enjoyment is in hearing her laugh at it and then attempting to speak Runny Babbit talk herself. Ghat a wiggler she is!
Grandpa R
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