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In response to my Apostrophe Society post, Bob Beckley commented:

I agree. If you want to hear my “Apostrophe Apostasy” song, click here.

Fun song.

July 10 marks two occasions: first, it is my "little" bro's birthday. (I'll not tell his age, but he's two years younger than me...and I'm thirty-eight.) Second, July 10th is Teddy Bear's Picnic Day. And that means it's time to brush up on a little bit of furry history (about the bears, not the brother...)

See, the whole teddy bear craze began with a hunting trip, a tied up bear, and a man with principles...

US President Theodore Roosevelt was a hunter who particularly enjoyed hunting big game. In 1902, while on a Presidential hunting trip in Mississippi, he was unsuccessful in bagging a big game animal. So, his hosts captured a small bear, tied it to a tree, and presented it to the President to shoot.

"Spare the bear!" Roosevelt cried. "I will not shoot a tethered animal."

The Washington Post picked up the story, and ran a cartoon (drawn by Clifford Berryman) depicting the event on November 16, 1902. The cartoon became an instant sensation, and was widely reprinted.

When toy store owners Morris and Rose Michtom, of Brooklyn, New York, heard about the story, they were inspired to create stuffed bears in honor of the President's actions. They even contacted him to request permission to name their new toy "Teddy's Bear." Their creation was sweet and innocent looking, and sat upright instead of standing on all fours. Teddy's Bears became wildly popular, and the Michtom's bear-making operation morphed into the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company - one of the largest toy companies in the world, and the first teddy bear manufacturer in the United States.

At about the same time in Germany, the Steiff company came out with a stuffed, jointed bear which they debuted at the March 1903 Leipzig Toy Fair. European buyers showed little interest. But one American buyer, aware of the Teddy's Bear craze back in the States, ordered 3,000 of Steiff's Baer 55PB.

By 1906, the teddy bear frenzy was in full swing: society ladies carried their teddies everywhere, kids had their pictures taken with their bears, and Roosevelt himself used the bear in his re-election bid! "Teddy bear" had become the accepted term for the toy, and is still in use today. This was also the year that composer J.K. Bratton wrote "The Teddy Bear Two-Step." With words added, the song became "The Teddy Bear's Picnic." Besides Ideal and Steiff, many other new teddy bear companies sprang up during this time, but not many remained in business. One notable exception: Gund, which is still successfully making bears to this day.

Since those humble yet wildly popular beginnings, teddy bears have become synonymous with childhood. Many adults still wax nostalgic on their beloved teddy bears - writing books about them, reminiscing about them, and collecting them. (My own mother is an enthusiastic teddy bear collector...but I won't give up her age!)

2008 marks the 106th anniversary of the birth of the teddy bear, and July 10th is Teddy Bear's Picnic Day, so celebrate these momentous milestones by having a teddy bear picnic tomorrow whether you're six, or one-hundred-six! (Or even if you're just thirty-six - though I don't have any idea who will be turning that particular age tomorrow...)   

To help you out, here are some sites to get your picnic planning started:

DLTK's Growing Together - Teddy Bears Section

Teddy Bear's Picnic Day

It's Teddy Bear Picnic Time

Teddy Bear Picnic - song and lyrics

For further inspiration as you plan a fantastic Teddy Bear Picnic of your very own for July 10th, keep this last verse of Teddy Bear Picnic running in your head: 

Every teddy bear that's been good

Is sure of a treat today.

There's lots of wonderful things to eat

And wonderful games to play.

Beneath the trees, where nobody sees

They'll hide and seek as long as they please.

Today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic.

Sources:

Teddy Bear Picnic

The History of the Teddy Bear

The Teddy Bear Museum History Page

I think of Powells, the biggest bookstore west of Mississippi, as my hometown bookstore. And it’s even kind of true. I was born in Portland, even though I grew up in tiny Medford, OR, where the closest thing to a bookstore was JK Gills, which more was a stationery store.

Anyway, a Publishers Weekly blogger fell in love with these clever kid's lit water bottles they carry. Powells, with its INDIEspensible program, and its unusual events, can always be counted on to do something eye-catching, thought-provoking, and just plain fun.

[And for the record, I don’t even know any one who works there any more, although I used to.]

PW reports that Portland’s very own Powell's Books will begin a new subscription service called IndieSpensable. For $39.95, subscribers will get a new package every six weeks. It will include a signed first edition of a new title plus other materials that could range from a DVD, a zine or sample chapters from a work-in-progress. It will begin in with Lydia Millet's How the Dead Dream, published by Counterpoint Press, which is doing a custom cover of the title.

IF- 100% !!
































About the Annette Funicello and the Beach Boys "Monkeys Uncle", humming it, and it will brighten your day..

Yeah, yeah, She loves the monkey's uncle, Whoa, whoa, She loves the monkey's uncle....

Yesterday, Robert Mack, the editor of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, wrote about the many incarnations of the tale. Today Mack looks at Sondheim’s version. This post first appeared on Powell’s.

Stephen Sondheim first came across the Todd story on a visit to London in 1973, when he saw Christopher Bond’s version on stage. Bond had made the story darker and less melodramatic than previous versions, in which Todd was portrayed as an increasingly paranoid homicidal maniac, who murdered simply out of greed. Bond was the first dramatist to provide Todd with a convincing, well thought-out, and fully integrated ‘back story’. At the beginning of the play, Todd’s anger is explained: it is directed exclusively at the local judge and beadle who together, many years before, had destroyed his career, transported him for life as a convicted felon, and (he believes) killed his beloved wife. Todd’s aim is revenge, pure and simple. Only after his initial attempts to do away with the judge and beadle are frustrated does he come to the conclusion that ‘the work’s its own reward’, and decides that until he has another shot at his enemies he will ‘practice on less honoured throats’. (more…)

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The Oregonian used to have a saying, "If it matters to Oregonians, it's in the Oregonian." When the Bob Packwood scandal broke (the lecherous senator who had groped and kissed dozens of women), it was via the Washington Post, although his womanizing (not even the right word, since he usually picked on women who had a lot less social status and sometimes they weren't even women at all, but girls) had been well known to the local media for years. So then there was a bumper sticker that read "If it matters to Oregonians, it's in the Washington Post."

Now the LA Times has run a lengthy piece looking at the succession plans Michael Powell has for Portland's Powell's Books, the biggest bookstore west of the Mississippi. There are actually several bookstores, including an airport outlet and a bookstore just for cooks, but the flagship store takes up a full city block in the middle of downtown Portland. They've been selling books online since 1994, and they sell new and used right next to each. Every night you can go to Powells and expect to see a big name author. But now the LA Times says their business is flat, when it should be growing, and there are some questions about whether Michael's daughter, 29 year old Emily, can successfully take over the business.

Read more here.

Remember when I told you that Maureen Johnson’s book The Bermudez Triangle was being banned from an Oklahoma high school library (or at least gave you the link to the story)? Well, the Brothers Green have decided to do something about it. Behold, a Brotherhood 2.0 video that challenges its audience to speak up and write letters to the faculty involved in this decision. The appropriate emails follow below if you’re feeling in a letter writing mood:

Mrs. Janet Vernon, Executive Director of Secondary Instruction
UPDATE: Mrs. Vernon’s email box is full, but you can email her assistant, Becky Brubaker, and ask her to pass your thoughts along to Mrs. Vernon
Dr. Richard Rosenberger, Executive Director of Human Resources
Mr. Chuck McCauley, Principal of Bartlesville High School

And could this be the next new thing your agents and publishers do for you, fooling around with iMovie until they’ve made a trailer for your signing?

Are you ready for some “polished prose and raw lust?”

Thanks to Powells this little possible controversy caught my eye. It seems that this guy thinks someone at Nike might owe Chuck Palahniuk some money for this commercial. It’s a little too similar to Fight Club, in his opinion. What do you think?

And finally, the best for last. How far would you go to satisfy that “I must have the next book in the series NOW!” craving? Jennie of Jennie’s B(ook)log gives us one example with “Olive’s Bold Ascent.”

If you’re interested in Olive’s first adventure, you can find it here. You can also read an excellent interview with Jennie about being a copywriter here.

I was going to wait to post these all on Friday when I know half of you aren’t really working at your jobs, but I have to be up at six am for a thirteen hour shift. If anything gets posted on Friday it will be a miracle.

And by the way, how mad am I that the Kentucky Derby is on my birthday on Saturday? Now I’ll never have the energy to go out afterwards and pretend that all of Mexico is really celebrating me and not a triumph at the Battle of Pueblo.

*But, hey, they’re all book related in some way, so claim it is work!