Fun facts with the great Dr. Seuss

         Throughout time there have been many great poets that have left behind their stamp in life. Some writers like Edgar Allen Poe wrote poems that live on forever, even after passing on in Baltimore, Maryland on October 7th 1849. After his death for more than sixty years an anonymous man would leave three roses, and a half-empty bottle of French cognac on Edgar Allen Poe's gravestone, and even to this day that man's identity isn't known. Even today his legacy continues with the Baltimore Ravens adopting their name from one of his many famous poems.

         Without an argument Dr. Seuss indisputably has to be one of the greatest children's poets ever. For over half a century Dr. Seuss has been entertaining children all around the world. Today just about every child has been in contact with one of his many priceless books. There's a lot we know about Dr. Seuss today. Here's some of the things we do know about the dear old doctor. We know that..............

1. His name was actually Theodore Seuss Geisel and he wrote and illustrated 44 children's books.

2. Theodor Seuss Geisel was born on March 2, 1904 in Springfield, MA & throat cancer took him away from the world on September 24, 1991.

3. He didn't have any children & he was not particularly fond of spending time with them either. (I'm adding an important note here on how history writes that he was not PARTICULARLY FOND of spending time with children. I don't want anyone reading this to get that confused with LIKING children, because I don't think it would be fair to say that. I also truly believe that anyone who wrote such beautiful books for children must have really loved them. It's possible that Dr. Seuss just didn't want to be around LOUD little screaming kids for long periods of time. So please remember that not being particularly fond of something or someone, doesn't mean that a person doesn't like them, and it wouldn't be fair to classify it like that.)

4. Seuss was actually a recluse, and spent much of his time alone in his studio.

5. Seuss was actually his Mother's maiden name.

6. You actually pronounce “Seuss” like “Soice.” (Rhymes with voice).

7. In his book “The Cat in the Hat” he used just 225 words.

8. That his book “Green Eggs and Ham” was written on a bet that he couldn’t write a book using 50 words or less. He won a $50 bet with his publisher for accomplishing this! The 50 words, by the way, are: a, am, and, anywhere, are, be, boat, box, car, could, dark, do, eat, eggs, fox, goat, good, green, ham, here, house, I, if, in, let, like, may, me, mouse, not, on, or, rain, Sam, say, see, so, thank, that, the, them, there, they, train, tree, try, will, with, would, you.

9. While Seuss was in the military he wrote a film called "Design for death", which later won the 1947 Academy Award for Documentary Film.

10. In his book "Yertle the Turtle”, Yertle actually represented Hitler.

11. While in the armed forces Seuss oversaw the production of 24 cartoon shorts, in which the voice of character Pvt. Snafu was performed by the immortal Mel Blanc.

12. Only Dr. Seuss can fit so much stuff on top of the Grinch's little sled.

         There's a great deal of mystery as well as questions that have come to surface over the years from his many great books. Here are just a few of those questions..............

         From the book "The Cat in The Hat Comes back"

1. How did the cat in the hat get so many of his little friends in that hat of his?

2. How could one little pink stain cause so much trouble?

3. How did that little pink stain cover up all of that snow perfectly?

4. Why would a house guest eat cake in a bathtub?

5. How much would a $10 pair of shoes in 1958 cost today?

6. Why didn't Cat-C just leave the pink stain in Cat-B's pan, and dump it down the sink or the toilet instead of making a bigger mess?

7. Why didn't the Cat in the hat rinse the pink stain down the drain of the bath tub in the first place?

         In his book "Green Eggs & Ham"

1. Who in their right mind would eat any kind of food product in a closed wooden box with a fox inside of it?

2. How does one wreck a car into a tree and not crash, and then land perfectly on top of a moving train?

3. What are the odds of a train with a car on top of it crashing also and landing on a boat?

4. Do you think green pork might make someone sick?

5. Why was Sam not once, not twice, but three times introduced to all of us, when no other character in the book was ever introduced?

6. Why didn't the old cat just eat those green eggs and ham the first time Sam I am offered them to him, and save himself all of that heart-ache?

7. Why wasn't the airplane included with all of the other main modes of transportation in this book?

8. Who would want to eat green eggs and ham or any other meal with a goat?

9. Have you ever heard of a train crashing off of a bridge and not exploding?

         From the book "The foot book"

1. Why out of all of the feet in this book didn't any two of them ever match up to make a pair of feet?

         From his book "The Cat in the hat"

1. How did that little fish manage to stay alive after being tossed from container to container?

2. Have you ever heard of a talking fish?

3. What kind of motor was in the cat in the hat's picker-upper car?

4. Why did everybody have a name in this book except the little boy?

5. Why was the fish the main boss in the household?

6. Have you ever seen a worse house guest than the Cat in the hat?

         In his book "The Sneetches & Other Stories"

1. What kind of a name is Sylvester McMonkey McBean?

2. Where did those Sneetches get all of that money that they paid McBean?

3. In the story "The Zax", why didn't the highway department make the two zax move out of the way so they wouldn't have to build a zax bypass?

4. How did that empty pair of pale green pants stand up in the air, ride a bike, and row a boat without anybody inside of them?

         From the book "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish"

1. Why weren't there any gold fish in the story?

2. Why didn't Ned get a longer bed so that he wouldn't have to stick his feet out of the holes in the foot board or his head out of another hole in the head board?

3. Why did the Nook carry around a cook book which he couldn't read?

4. Why couldn't poor Ned ever catch a break in bed?

5. Why were there more blue fish in the book than any other color of fish?

6. Instead of getting a hair cut every single day, why didn't the Zeds just throw their one hair back into a ponytail?

7. Was the Nook the only one out of all of the Dr. Suess books who couldn't read?

8. Why were you always being asked to go ask your Dad, Mother, and Pop for their view on things?

         In his book "Horton Hears A Who!"

1. What are the odds of Horton Finding the correct clover in a field full of 3 million clovers?

2. How did that little clover stay in one whole piece after going through everything it did?

3. Why did the Wickersham Brothers give poor Horton such a hard time to begin with?

4. Why didn't a big elephant like Horton stand up to a bunch of little monkeys?

         From his book "Oh, the thinks you can think"

1. Why does Saturday seem to be the main day when a lot of things happen in this book?

2. In retrospect to the book's question on how much water can 55 elephants drink?; there were only 34 elephants pictured at the watering hole, where were the other 21 elephants? (Possibly out of sight on the other side of the hill?)

         I hope you enjoyed this interesting list of fun facts about the great Dr. Seuss. Keep this short story in mind for the future to stump your friends with trivia questions that they will love. Have a good day, BGJ


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