So, did anyone read something funny? I'm glad that I put this goal on the list, because I then HAD to re-read some P.G. Wodehouse.
In honor of the dog/balloon, I went back to Wodehouse's short story, "Goodbye to All Cats," where poor Freddie tries to impress his girlfriend's animal-loving family. Here's a sample:
'Permit me,' said Freddie, suave to the eyebrows.
And, bounding forward with the feeling that this was the stuff to give them, he barged right into a cat.
'Oh, sorry,' he said, backing and bringing down his heel on another cat.
'I say, most frightfully sorry,' he said.
And tottering to a chair, he sank heavily onto a third cat.
Well, he was up and about in a jiffy, of course, but it was too late. There was the usual not-at-all-ing and don't-mention-it-ing, but he could read between the lines. Lady Prenderby's eyes had rested on his for only a brief instant, but it had been enough. His standing with her, he perceived, was now approximately what King Herod's would have been at an Israelite Mothers' Social Saturday Afternoon.
Did you laugh? I will think less of you if you didn't.
I have to thank my friend Julie (whose All the Truth That's In Me just got its fifth starred review! from the Horn Book, no less!) for first lending me "Summer Lightning." It's what got me through the weeks after September 11th. My favorite Wodehouse is, and perhaps always will be, "Leave it to Psmith," if only because the heroine and hero are quite absurdly likeable, even sensible.
And, if you've never watched Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry as Jeeves and Wooster, well, get thee to it.