Happy 109th birthday to the great Dr. Seuss! The noble occasion was observed yesterday at The Kid’s school, and I got to join her at the cafeteria for a commemorative breakfast consisting of actual green eggs and ham. I was proud to partake of this repast, as I believe that Dr. Seuss is one of the towering narrative poets of the century, and that
Green Eggs and Ham is a masterpiece of incantatory, incremental repetition.
I was fascinated to read, a few years ago, that
Green Eggs was written on a bet from his publisher at Random House, Bennett Cerf, that he couldn’t write a book using only fifty words. Dr. Seuss was up to the challenge, and only one of the fifty—“anywhere”—isn’t a monosyllable!
