Tuesday would be the 100th birthday of Theo Geisel, aka Dr Seuss. He was the author of many children’s book that were widely read and loved throughout most of the English-speaking world. They are famous for their flippity slip nimble playful use of language.

However, Geisel had several careers before that, one as an editorial cartoonist, and another making propaganda films for the army during and after WWII.
It is perhaps these experiences which influenced him to give many of his children’s books such important morals dealing with the likes of anti-fascism, bigotry, enviromentalism, and civic duty. My favorite was Hop on Pop.
Here is one of said cartoons. I picked this one out because it is the one I find most unsettling and seemingly out-of-step with an otherwise rather liberal Seuss.
Listen to story

Incidentally, for my non-German speaking Readers, Geisel is German for “hostage”.
That reminds me, yesterday I went to the see Das Fliegende Klassenzimmer, the old one from ’54. K?stner plays himself. What a cute little film.

And under other miscellany: a Reuters story about how them old nursury rhymes are actually full of
naughty bits.

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