This week’s whimsy is brought to you by a timely warning on the perils of neglecting baobabs.
An illustration by Antoine de Saint-Exupery from his story "The Little Prince"
Now there were some terrible seeds on the planet that was the home of the little prince; and these were the seeds of the baobab. The soil of that planet was infested with them. A baobab is something you will never, never be able to get rid of if you attend to it too late. It spreads over the entire planet. It bores clear through it with its roots. And if the planet is too small, and the baobabs are too many, they split it in pieces . . .
How can I have arrived at my advanced years without previously encountering the whimsical delights of The Little Prince? I first read it just this morning, while waiting for Sprog the Younger to finish band practise, because one of her friends had lent it to her. I wish that I’d had the chance to read it to my kids when they were small.
Please share any bits and pieces you have come across recently that have surprised, delighted, intrigued or otherwise positively engaged you.
NB: the weekly whimsy thread is a stoush-free zone
Oh yes Tigtog, one of the best love letters in the world. Gene Wilder as the fox.
we are way past our download limit this month, so i haven’t had a chance to check out that vid yet, the park beckons.
“The grown-ups are certainly very, very odd,” he said to himself, as he continued on his journey.
I liked the Tippler, who drank to forget his shame of drinking.
Kind of a dark ending for a kid’s book, though.
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If I had to nominate key philosiphical influences they would include Antoine de Saint-Exupery. A beautiful and deeply eccentric character.
dylwah, you have a download limit? I haven’t heard of such a thing in years … since I left Australia, in fact…
I have no whimsy to nominate. I’ve been watching the new Scooby Doo, though, and can recommend episode 13 (I think), “The Shrieking Madness” as a very cute homage to Lovecraft.
sg on the broadband, then it reverts to very slow dial up speeds. not complaining mind, it makes my uni work slow, but pretty much scuppers most of the sprogs internetting.
it is a bit farcical, but i can tether the fruit phone to the computer and most of my uni stuff is ok.
How did you go with castle, get to the halloween ep yet?
oh, this – http://soulwire.co.uk/experiments
Oh yay, finally a whimsy that I could look at. Slow dial-up excludes most whimsies to my deep and abiding disappointment, cause those of us in the excruciatingly slow lane could always do with some cheer, let us hope that the NBN will bring some equality to those of us who have no bloody hope of ever enjoying a whimsy that moves.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery was a pilot; anything he wrote on flight (especially if you experience even the slightest thrill in reading about the early days of aviation) is well worth a look.
sg, if you like Lovecraft i’m reading some books by jeffrey Barlough which are sort of faux victorian style Lovecraftian stories. Described on the blurb as Conan Doyle meets Lovecraft. I’m on the second one at the moment which seems to hint at similarities to ‘the rats in the wall’. They’re for people who like words and archaic style but not real serious. Apologies if Lovecraft is not exactly whimsy.