in memoriam

Did you know that yesterday was dear ol’ Dr. Seuss’s birthday? Well, it was.

Theodor Seuss Geisel was born on 03/02/04!

Throughout my whole life, I have ALWAYS been a big Dr. Seuss fan, I’m sure we all were at one point or another, right?  I mean, whose childhood didn’t include The Cat in the Hat, Horton Hears a Who, or Green Eggs and Ham?

Usual Suspect.

Sidebar: remember when Season 5 Top Chef contender Carla made Green Eggs and Ham during a quickfire challenge?

Don’t you think she kinda looks a little like a resident of Whoville?:

Coincidence? I think not...

Hootie-hoo, Carla! (I love you.)

I digress.

As I was saying, somehow Dr. Seuss always finds his way into my life at every stage. Some of my earliest memories are of my superawesome dad making up tunes to the silly songs in The Cat in the Hat Songbook…

Plinker Plunker!

…and as a suddenly environmentally-conscious 5th grader, I wrote what I considered to be a very moving paper on The Lorax.  Sometimes, riiiiight around wine-time, DK will dig it up to embarrass the heck out of me.

"I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues!"

The Good Doctor Seuss even followed me to college when DK gave me a copy of Oh, The Places You’ll Go as I settled into my dorm room at the University of Texas.

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose."

Oh, and let’s not forget about Seussical the Musical (!!!) which opened on Broadway in 2000!  (…just to be sure that eeeeeeeevery last one of my tender little heartstrings were played upon…)

"Just tell yourself, duckie, you're really quite lucky!"

Then, when I moved to NYC myself, I met a wonderful guy named Andrew who educated me on the lost art of Dr. Seuss:

From www.drseussart.com: “Dr. Seuss single-handedly forged a new genre of art that falls somewhere between the Surrealist Movement of the early 20th Century and the inspired nonsense of a precocious child’s classroom doodles.”

Andrew had a truly mesmerizing (not to mention enormous) landscape painting in his apartment and I came to learn that Seuss not only worked in illustrations and paint, but also bronze sculpture and “unorthodox taxidermy”

Even now, as a full-fledged adult (scary.), I often find myself considering the wise words of Dr. Seuss.  Check it:

“Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is you-er than you.”

“Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.”

“I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind. Some come from ahead and some come from behind. But I’ve bought a big bat. I’m all ready you see. Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!”

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”

And finally, my favorite (my sister’s favorite too):

“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.”

Bringing it all full-circle for me, next Saturday my very, very dear friends Jess and Adam will be celebrating the first birthday of THE MOST ADORABLE CHILDREN EVER, otherwise known as their kids, my pseudo niece and nephew, Eli and Alexa, with a Seuss-themed birthday party…where the twin guests of honor will appear as Thing 1 and Thing 2!

Precious!

But if you’d like to have your OWN Seuss celebration, you’re in luck.  On SUNDAY, MARCH 21st the Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, will be hosting a “Seussian” Birthday Party in conjunction with their fascinating exhibition, “Dr. Seuss Goes to War…and More!”, a collection of Ted Grisel’s WWII political cartoons.

showing now through 08/31/10

Click here for details.

So, HAPPY 106th BIRTHDAY, Dr. Seuss… from the Q+DD!

oh, and happy 1st birthday, A + E! Aunt LK loves you!

Oh, the places you'll go!

xx, L