
Sixty years of Green Eggs and Ham - amanuensis
https://brianjayjones.com/2020/08/11/sixty-years-of-green-eggs-and-ham/
======
9nGQluzmnq3M
Green Eggs and Ham is a great starter book, but IMHO the greatest of Dr
Seuss's many great books is _Oh, the Places You 'll Go!_. His mastery of
"simple" English is stunning, kids find it enthralling, and the messages are
surprisingly deep.

Here's the text, but the original illustrated version is so much better:
[https://www.poetrygrrrl.com/oh-the-places-youll-go-by-dr-
seu...](https://www.poetrygrrrl.com/oh-the-places-youll-go-by-dr-seuss/)

~~~
bnjms
When I graduated high school my English teacher sat the 35 or so of us in my
small class. He sat us down like kindergarteners and read us this book. It’s
one of my fondest memories.

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kanobo
“Cerf bet me fifty bucks I couldn’t write a book using only 50 words,” he said
later. “I did it to show I could.” This encapsulated the lesson I learned from
the recent Michael Jordan documentary - take silly bets and trivial insults
seriously and you can be driven to do great things.

~~~
powersnail
Hemingway also allegedly won a bet with a six-word fiction: "For sale: baby
shoes, never worn."

~~~
dang
This is a job for QuoteInvestigator!
[https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/01/28/baby-
shoes/](https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/01/28/baby-shoes/)

(It was not Hemingway.)

~~~
powersnail
That's quite an extensive investigation to read!

~~~
dang
After 10 years he has built up quite a repertoire, and it's starting to get
rarer to run across a quote he hasn't covered.

The primary lesson is that almost every famous quotation has been
misattributed, inevitably to someone more famous. It's surprisingly unusual to
find a famous quote that the famous person actually said.

~~~
telesilla
Except Churchill, I'm sure

~~~
dang
I'm afraid Churchill is very much included. He didn't say "up with which I
will not put", he didn't say "I am drunk but you are ugly and in the morning I
shall be sober", he didn't say "if I were your husband I'd drink that poison",
and so on. He didn't say most of the best Churchill lines. Lincoln didn't say
most of the best Lincoln lines either. Same with Mark Twain, Einstein, and so
on.

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DonHopkins
Green Eggs and Ham, narrated by the Reverend Jesse Jackson on SNL in 1991,
after the death of Dr. Seuss.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1mqg4C0awA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1mqg4C0awA)

~~~
kupopuffs
Laugh tracks do make things funnier

~~~
vanderZwan
SNL is filmed in front of a live audience

~~~
DonHopkins
That's what the "L" stands for! ;) It's also why they always say "Live from
New York, it's Saturday Night!" at the beginning of each show.

I disagree that laugh tracks make things funnier, though.

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master-litty
I often battle an odd insecurity about taking too long to do things. I've
taken some time to write this comment, for example, and I can't help but
wonder how long all these other comments took to write -- How normal do I
compare? If I'm slower than average, is there something wrong with me, and is
there something wrong with that? Surely, I tell myself, I must be focusing on
the wrong things, and my time would be spent more productively elsewhere.

I once thought it was an issue of intelligence, but my wife has helped me see
the careful thought I put into every word, every stroke of the pen, every
movement I make. The time I take is deliberate, purposeful. The issue I've
recently faced is justifying the time spent to create a certain quality of art
and work.

It feels quite normalizing to read about Dr. Seuss and his year-long struggle
to create this book. Inspirational, even. Look at all the joy this man has
brought into the world. Look at how his time spent has served everyone well.

Look at the fun he had along the way.

You can't quantify that against time. If you find a way, perhaps you
shouldn't.

~~~
gregwebs
The newer Dr. Seuss books feel like they have a fraction of the effort put
into them. Sometimes a couple sentences seem like ones written by the original
Dr. Seuss but then they decided it was too hard and just gave up on quality.

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drrevjj
...and an eloquent, nuanced, and powerful reading of the tome:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1mqg4C0awA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1mqg4C0awA)

~~~
qrybam
...or a more modernist rap of the same:

[https://youtu.be/nwDGRUzv3SE](https://youtu.be/nwDGRUzv3SE)

~~~
a_e_k
Moxy Fruvous also did a song inspired by the book:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzUdmFecExo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzUdmFecExo)

~~~
crtasm
And don't forget Bob Dylan's* cover:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhuWipIDhwI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhuWipIDhwI)

*not actually Dylan but it's a great take on him and there's six more Seuss songs on the album.

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CarbyAu
For me the genius of "green eggs and ham" is that you read it to your kid at
about the time they become more picky with their food. So the book is a lesson
too.

Some days I really want to read this book to my kid:
[https://www.amazon.com.au/You-Have-F-king-
Eat/dp/1501238663](https://www.amazon.com.au/You-Have-F-king-
Eat/dp/1501238663)

~~~
whoopdedo
That lesson can backfire. When my father decided to treat me to "green eggs
and ham" on my birthday thinking I'd be thrilled. But in order to mix in the
food coloring he needed to chop the ham into pieces and scramble the eggs.
Because it didn't match the image of whole ham and unbroken yolks, I hated it
and threw a tantrum. I was quite the problem child.

Semi-related, my favorite cheese is Swiss because it has holes in it, and
that's how cheese is portrayed in comics.

~~~
CarbyAu
Yeah, I don't plan on using it as a recipe!

More a lesson on "See how much time he wasted refusing it when he could have
simply tried it to begin with?"

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btilly
For the record, my 10 year old self actually made green eggs.

I was trying to make scrambled eggs. I put some Cayenne pepper in. I dumped a
bunch. I realized it was hot. I had heard that mint would make food taste less
hot. So I dumped in more and more and more and more.

Eventually it turned green. But didn't stop being waaay too hot to my 10 year
old self. (I'm sure that my 50 year old self would find it mild.)

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RickJWagner
For those too young to have seen it, I present the Reverand Jesse Jackson
narrating 'Green Eggs and Ham'. A classic.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1mqg4C0awA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1mqg4C0awA)

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monkeycantype
I learnt to read from this book. It had been read to me so many times I knew
every word, and while watching along, the change from `i am sam` to `sam i am`
is where it all clicked.

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piceas
I came across an old copy of Come Over to My House which we have now read
_many_ times. It is nice to have an accessible cross cultural theme where the
characters actually interact with each other.

At our local library newer books sometimes make an attempt but mostly limit
themselves to token depictions of a head coverings, black kids, and
wheelchairs.

I hope even the somewhat sanitized recent edition will have the staying power
of the other more well known stories.

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billpg
"I do so like green eggs and ham. Thank you. Thank you, Sam-I-Am."

At this point, the character has realized that his quite firm refusal is
having no effect. Growing weary of being ignored, he makes a show of
capitulation and eats, exclaiming faux appreciation to Sam for his efforts.

After this episode, he never eats green eggs nor ham again. In adulthood, he
would often think back to this moment with regret for having failed to stand
up for himself.

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JKCalhoun
Once again we are faced with limitations, restrictions, being the fruit of
creativity.

Or maybe it's money and a gentleman's honor.

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gumby
This was a great book to try to get my six year old to use English. He liked
to read it aloud.

It took a few years to get to a second one though.

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ggcdn
Its a great catchy book, and it was interesting to learn more about the
origins of it. Both my 3yo and I can recite it from memory.

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billpg
This is a story of capitulating to bullies. "Sam" is a bully.

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sidewinder128
This is a great article and the content very interesting about the books.

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qubex
I’ve always been profoundly “creeped out” by Dr Seuss’ books—the text and the
illustrations, now as much as when I was a kid and part of the target
demographic.

~~~
082349872349872
You probably want to avoid _The Seven Lady Godivas_ then.

~~~
qubex
Thanks, I hate it. :)

Speaking of creepy kids’ books, what gives with _Marianne Dreams_? It felt
like real nightmare material when I read it as a mature adult.

~~~
082349872349872
Wow, that sounds like a juvenile _Videodrome_.

~~~
qubex
Yeah... now that you mention it...

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Jtsummers
[https://brianjayjones.com/2020/08/11/sixty-years-of-green-
eg...](https://brianjayjones.com/2020/08/11/sixty-years-of-green-eggs-and-
ham/)

For the those who don’t want to read a twitter thread but want a posting by
the original author.

~~~
dang
Changed from
[https://twitter.com/brianjayjones/status/1292552188464705536](https://twitter.com/brianjayjones/status/1292552188464705536).
Thanks!

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genericone
Offtopic, but on the topic of green eggs, several differents breeds of
chickens can lay green, and even blue and lavender colored eggs.

~~~
dmurray
Do you mean the shells, or the yolks? The illustrations in the Seuss book show
lime-green yolks.

~~~
kevin_thibedeau
You just have to let them mature:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_egg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_egg)

