Your discussion here of your implacable hatred of Jerome K. Jerome reminds me of a story which I’m sure you know. It is about Diana Wynne Jones and Arthur Ransome. It is mentioned in a lovely post by Keith Oatley about re-reading books from childhood. (http://www.onfiction.ca/2010/07/re-reading-swallows-and-amazons.html)

Briefly: DWJ met Ransome when she was a child and when he was a misanthropic old man who “hated children.” At this meeting, he yelled at her mother for all the noise a group of children had been making.

While she was growing up, DWJ’s parents gave her & her sisters exactly one book per year to share between the three of them, at Christmas. The books were Arthur Ransome’s “Swallow and Amazons” series. DWJ remembers these being the only children’s books she read until she was a mother.

Oatley reflects, in post-script to the blog article: “I’m in London at the moment and, still thinking about how Arthur Ransome could be such a delightful and sensitive writer about childhood and such a grumpy old man, I just came across this in the programme of Alan Bennett’s new play ‘The habit of art,’ about W.H. Auden and Benjamin Britten: “Real artists are not nice people. All their best feelings go into their work and life has the residue.’ — W.H. Auden.”

In my opinion. But I’d rather read the book.

Also, being new is my excuse for responding to this thing so late. =D

It is one of your most charming qualities, that you hate having to qualify your affection. We come here for that exuberance!

My son needs to give up “like” but I’d say that I need to give up “you know.” Because I use it too much in spoken conversation, you know? 😉 It drives me crazy when I hear myself say it without even thinking.

What filler words do you use in Dutch? What do they mean? I am so curious!

Also, your English is really good. I am always greatly impressed with your blog posts because I would utterly fail at writing posts in any language other than my own. I might manage Latin…

I don’t like him as a dude although I guess I can acknowledge that he was a funny writer. Grrrrr.

Oh, I’m definitely not buying it. I’ll rent it or get it from the library, assuming that I can find it at the library — the library’s DVD organizational system is a little sketchy.

My vacation was indeed wonderful! Vacations are smashing! 😀

Oh, that’s terrible! Growing up is a bummer because you often move away from lovely people you have known forever. It was so relaxing and wonderful to see my people again.

Oo, a giveaway! I shall investigate!

I liked your Sparkling Enope Squid! And all your other beautiful drawings of animals.