That Damn Sam-I-Am...

I've always marveled at the genius that is Dr. Seuss. When I was in Kindergarten the first book I learned to read was Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?. I was so proud--I knocked on the neighbors' doors, and asked if I could read it aloud to them. (I had nice neighbors.)

My parents and older siblings read me Seuss titles over and over, like my favorite tongue tinglers Fox in Socks and One fish two fish red fish blue fish (if you click on this link, be sure to read the first review of One fish two fish entitled "Prescient political pondering of our polarized prolatariat." Quite amusing.)

I remember getting a copy of Hooray for Diffendoofer Day!, the posthumous publication partly penned by Prelutsky featuring a back section of Seuss' sketches, doodles and scribbled verses and was in awe at this glimpse into the mind of the artist in process.

Then I had a child. And he's a child who loves books. And, like most children, he likes to hear them over and over and over. And one day he found a copy of Green Eggs and Ham in the bookcase. Hooray! I thought. No more board books! Reading time will be one big Seuss-o-rama! I put on my best Jesse Jackson voice and dived right in.

And now the Green-Eggs-and-Ham-a-thon never seems to end. I get up early, put in a full day's work, pick up the kid, we buy some groceries, mess up the house, play in the yard, make dinner... I'm sleepy. And Murray says read Sam-I-Am book! Read Sam-I-Am book again! By the third time through the last bits of energy have been sucked out of me. It's 72 pages long. It rhymes. It plays in my head. Again! he says. How about the truck book? I plead? Sam-I-Am book again!

If I ever meet that Sam-I-Am...I will kill him on a train. I will kill him in the rain. I will kill him here or there. I will kill him anywhere. (But I'll probably buy the Green Eggs and Ham Cookbook when it comes out in October.)