Date: Wed, 05 Dec 2007 21:44:39 -0700
From: Ivan Van Laningham <ivanlan at pauahtun.org>
Subject: Re: [Regalia] Save the Hungry Tiger!!!

Hi All—

Nathan DeHoff wrote:
> By the way, it’s been months since we last had a BCF to discuss.
> Should we move on to JOHN DOUGH, or are people having trouble
> obtaining that one?  If so, maybe we should choose another book.  This
> list has been REALLY slow recently.  Considering the time of year,
> maybe a look at Thompson’s CURIOUS CRUISE OF CAPTAIN SANTA would be
> apropos.
> 

We’re all waiting for the new edition of _John Dough_ from Hungry Tiger 
Press.  I’d be happy to plug in _Curious_ right away, though, and I’ll 
even start (sort of).  It’s been a while since I read it, but I don’t 
remember anything in it that contradicted an Oz connection.  Am I wrong?

I have other things to dig out and read, might as well get out that one too.

Metta,
Ivan
— 
Ivan Van Laningham
God N Locomotive Works
http://www.pauahtun.org/
http://www.python.org/workshops/1998-11/proceedings/papers/laningham/laningham.html
Army Signal Corps:  Cu Chi, Class of ’70
Author:  Teach Yourself Python in 24 Hours

Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2007 13:19:30 -0600
From: “Ruth Berman” <berma005 at umn.edu>
Subject: [Regalia] clausing

“Nathan DeHoff” <fablesto at gmail.com> wrote:
> By the way, it’s been months since we last had a BCF to discuss. Should we 
> move on to JOHN DOUGH, or are people having trouble obtaining that one? 
> If so, maybe we should choose another book.  This list has been REALLY 
> slow recently.  Considering the time of year, maybe a look at Thompson’s 
> CURIOUS CRUISE OF CAPTAIN SANTA would be apropos. >
and Ivan Van Laningham <ivanlan at pauahtun.org> commented:
> We’re all waiting for the new edition of _John Dough_ from Hungry Tiger 
> Press.  I’d be happy to plug in _Curious_ right away, though, and I’ll 
> even start (sort of).  It’s been a while since I read it, but I don’t 
> remember anything in it that contradicted an Oz connection.  Am I wrong?
>

A December discussion of CURIOUS CRUISE OF CAPTAIN SANTA would probably be 
fun. There’s sort of a non-Oz-world element in having Santa Claus living at 
the North Pole, following the general image of polar Santa, rather than the 
“Life and Adventures” idea of Santa in/near Burzee. But maybe it’d be easy 
enough for Santa to go back and forth and have homes both places.

Ruth Berman

Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2007 22:40:20 -0500
From: “Nathan DeHoff” <fablesto at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Regalia] clausing

On Dec 6, 2007 2:19 PM, Ruth Berman <berma005 at umn.edu> wrote:
> “Nathan DeHoff” <fablesto at gmail.com> wrote:
> > By the way, it’s been months since we last had a BCF to discuss. Should we
> > move on to JOHN DOUGH, or are people having trouble obtaining that one?
> > If so, maybe we should choose another book.  This list has been REALLY
> > slow recently.  Considering the time of year, maybe a look at Thompson’s
> > CURIOUS CRUISE OF CAPTAIN SANTA would be apropos. >
> and Ivan Van Laningham <ivanlan at pauahtun.org> commented:
> > We’re all waiting for the new edition of _John Dough_ from Hungry Tiger
> > Press.  I’d be happy to plug in _Curious_ right away, though, and I’ll
> > even start (sort of).  It’s been a while since I read it, but I don’t
> > remember anything in it that contradicted an Oz connection.  Am I wrong? >
>
> A December discussion of CURIOUS CRUISE OF CAPTAIN SANTA would probably be
> fun. There’s sort of a non-Oz-world element in having Santa Claus living at
> the North Pole, following the general image of polar Santa, rather than the
> “Life and Adventures” idea of Santa in/near Burzee. But maybe it’d be easy
> enough for Santa to go back and forth and have homes both places.

Santa’s personality is also somewhat different.  While just as kindly,
Thompson’s Santa is much more impetuous than Baum’s calm,
hard-working, philosophical character.  Still, if we assume that the
two Santas are the same, CURIOUS CRUISE probably takes place several
centuries after he had received the Mantle of Immortality.  And since
LIFE AND ADVENTURES begins with a bored immortal, it’s only fair that
the immortal Santa could also grow somewhat bored and restless over
time.  The fact that Claus was himself adopted is paralleled in his
having adopted an orphan chimney-sweep in Thompson’s narrative.  I
seriously doubt that Thompson intended these parallels, but they’re
interesting for anyone who wants to maintain continuity between the
two different authors’ tales of Santa.

I re-read CURIOUS CRUISE today, so even if we’re not making it an
official BCF, I’m still going to offer a few comments on it.  The
story is rather slight, but the characters are interesting and quite
Thompsonian.  As the introduction to the Oz Club’s edition mentions,
Santa has some traits in common with Captain Salt.  Huggerumbo is the
typical gruff but loveable animal companion.  And while there’s no
indication that Thompson intended to tie this story in with her Oz
books, it does seem (not surprisingly) that she had Oz on her mind
while writing it.  Like Oz, the polar Christmas Country is a place
where nobody ages and animals can talk.  It’s also set up like one of
her cozy kingdoms, with a castle and servants (identified as brownies,
rather than the now-typical elves), but with the nobility perfectly
willing to go sledding, and prone to losing spectacles in the sugar
bowl.

Considering the location of the Christmas Country, it’s amusing that,
on p. 17, Santa claims that The Lost Islands lie “somewhere to the
South.”  Yes, and so does everything else in the world.  On a similar
note, Penny comments on the fact that it isn’t dark on the other side
of the sunset at eight o’clock, even though this would also be the
case during summer at their Arctic home.

— 
Happy Greetings and Season’s Holidays,
Nathan
<fablesto at gmail.com> or <nathandehoff at gmail.com>

Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2007 15:09:19 -0600
From: “Ruth Berman” <berma005 at umn.edu>
Subject: [Regalia] captain santa

“Nathan DeHoff” <fablesto at gmail.com> wrote:
> I re-read CURIOUS CRUISE today, so even if we’re not making it an official 
> BCF, I’m still going to offer a few comments on it.  The story is rather 
> slight, but the characters are interesting and quite Thompsonian. <

I enjoyed re-reading it a good deal — slight, as you say, but a lot of fun. 
Something I especially enjoy in it (and in her Oz books) is the sense of 
place, with striking descriptions (the gold clouds in the pink sky of the 
land beyind the sunset, the hissing sun as it drops into the sea, the 
chimney-masted ship with its red silk sails edged with silver bells, 
Neptune’s water place in place of a fire place), and cleverly appropriate 
choices of names (Ice Berg Bay, Snowshoe Mountain).

> Huggerumbo is the typical gruff but loveable animal companion. <

For obvious reasons, maybe most like Snufferbux, although the polar bear 
seems a bit more cheerful and optimistic than the brown bear. Penny the 
Penguin’s practicality next to Captain Santa’s impulsiveness is rather like 
Roger the Read Bird with Captain Salt. (Both captains dive headlong down 
long holes in the water and need some help getting back up again.)

> The fact that [Baum’s] Claus was himself adopted is paralleled in his 
> having adopted an orphan chimney-sweep in Thompson’s narrative.
<

RPT had done a sort of rough first draft in a poem in one of her December 
"Public Ledger" pages several years earlier, telling how Santa finds and 
adopts a forlorn chimney sweep he finds asleep by a chimey — a reflection, 
I suppose, of the sadder, less easily rescued Kingsley’s sweep Tom, 
transformed into one of "The Water Babies," or the sweeps with only dreams 
for consolation in one of Blake’s poems. I think by the time RPT was writing 
the practice of having chimneys cleaned by sending little boys up those 
carcinogenic environments had been outlawed. (Or maybe made less profitable 
by changes in technology. I remember that Dorothy L. Sayers has an adult 
sweep in one of her mysteries, who operates by reaching into chimneys with 
telecoping-handled brooms.) I expect Jimmy had for the contemporary readers, 
as for readers now, a flavor of having come out of stories from a fairly 
distant past.

> Considering the location of the Christmas Country, it’s amusing that, on 
> p. 17, Santa claims that The Lost Islands lie “somewhere to the South.” 
> Yes, and so does everything else in the world. <

"Near the equator" (and maybe "and to the south of the equator") is more 
what he has in mind.

> On a similar note, Penny comments on the fact that it isn’t dark on the 
> other side of the sunset at eight o’clock, even though this would also be 
> the case during summer at their Arctic home. >

Presumably she knows it isn’t to be expected in equatorial waters?

The episode of the South Seas cannibal island is embarrassing now (both as 
described by the narrative and — maybe even more — as pictured by Neill).

Ruth Berman

Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2007 16:38:57 -0500
From: “Nathan DeHoff” <fablesto at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Regalia] captain santa

On Dec 14, 2007 4:09 PM, Ruth Berman <berma005 at umn.edu> wrote:
> “Nathan DeHoff” <fablesto at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I re-read CURIOUS CRUISE today, so even if we’re not making it an official
> > BCF, I’m still going to offer a few comments on it.  The story is rather
> > slight, but the characters are interesting and quite Thompsonian.
<
>
> I enjoyed re-reading it a good deal — slight, as you say, but a lot of fun.
> Something I especially enjoy in it (and in her Oz books) is the sense of
> place, with striking descriptions (the gold clouds in the pink sky of the
> land beyind the sunset, the hissing sun as it drops into the sea, the
> chimney-masted ship with its red silk sails edged with silver bells,
> Neptune’s water place in place of a fire place), and cleverly appropriate
> choices of names (Ice Berg Bay, Snowshoe Mountain).

I thought the design of the ship was quite interesting, and
appropriate to its captain.  The lands beyond the sunset were also
quite interesting to explore, and fairly similar to Baum’s own
Merryland.

Neill’s drawings of Neptune, especially the one on p. 39, make him
look somewhat like Ruggedo as he appears in the Thompson books.  This
is interesting in light of the fact that the initial physical
description of Roquat compares him to Santa.

> > The fact that [Baum’s] Claus was himself adopted is paralleled in his
> > having adopted an orphan chimney-sweep in Thompson’s narrative. <
>
> RPT had done a sort of rough first draft in a poem in one of her December
> “Public Ledger” pages several years earlier, telling how Santa finds and
> adopts a forlorn chimney sweep he finds asleep by a chimey — a reflection,
> I suppose, of the sadder, less easily rescued Kingsley’s sweep Tom,
> transformed into one of “The Water Babies,” or the sweeps with only dreams
> for consolation in one of Blake’s poems. I think by the time RPT was writing
> the practice of having chimneys cleaned by sending little boys up those
> carcinogenic environments had been outlawed. (Or maybe made less profitable
> by changes in technology. I remember that Dorothy L. Sayers has an adult
> sweep in one of her mysteries, who operates by reaching into chimneys with
> telecoping-handled brooms.) I expect Jimmy had for the contemporary readers,
> as for readers now, a flavor of having come out of stories from a fairly
> distant past.

Jim’s sweeping down the chimneys before Santa slides down them is
similar to what Black Peter is said to do, but with the racist element
eliminated.  The Bombazooky episode makes it clear that avoiding
racism wasn’t one of Thompson’s goals in writing this book, though.

> > On a similar note, Penny comments on the fact that it isn’t dark on the
> > other side of the sunset at eight o’clock, even though this would also be
> > the case during summer at their Arctic home. >
>
> Presumably she knows it isn’t to be expected in equatorial waters?

Probably so, although that makes the joke about not needing to go to
sleep less effective.
— 
Happy Greetings and Season’s Holidays,
Nathan
<fablesto at gmail.com> or <nathandehoff at gmail.com>

Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2007 15:41:40 -0600
From: “Ruth Berman” <berma005 at umn.edu>
Subject: [Regalia] santa claus, zixi, cinderella

“Nathan DeHoff” <fablesto at gmail.com> wrote:
> The lands beyond the sunset were also quite interesting to explore, and 
> fairly similar to Baum’s own Merryland. >

There’s a considerable similarity in the treatment of the live toys, who get 
obstreperous, and whose loss of animation is something of a relief to the 
overwhelmed humans. Although RPT no doubt knew Merryland, this kind of fear 
of live toys is apparent;y a common motif in toy stories. Lois R. Kuznets 
wrote an interesting book some years back, “When Toys Come Alive: Narratives 
of Animation, Metamorphosis, and Development,” and toys who come alive and 
then are too much to cope with are one of the themes that she found cropping 
up a lot, not even counting Baum & RPT. (She has some discussion of the 
Scarecrow, as I recall, but didn’t include Baum’s non-Oz books or non-Baum 
Oz books in her sample.)

> Neill’s drawings of Neptune, especially the one on p. 39, make him look 
> somewhat like Ruggedo as he appears in the Thompson books.  This is 
> interesting in light of the fact that the initial physical description of 
> Roquat compares him to Santa. >

Yes, that resemblance struck me, too — not as striking, maybe, as it would 
have been if he’d decided to make Santa look like Roquat/Ruggedo! But an 
amusing resemblance.

Ruth Berman

Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:42:33 -0600
From: “Ruth Berman” <berma005 at umn.edu>
Subject: [Regalia] triangle covers

I forget who it was who commented that in the Oz books one of Neill’s 
favorite designs for covers was to have the main character flanked by 2 
strong supporters in a sort of triangular arrangement. “Captain Santa” shows 
another of these 3-some covers, with Santa (in captain’s cap) flanked by 
Penny the Penguin & Huggerumbo the polar bear. An unusual point in the 
arrangement is that it’s not vertical — Santa is pulling on the wheel to 
turn the ship, and the characters are all at a bit of a slant as the ship 
heels round. The intro by Doug Greene quotes a letter from RPT expressing 
her delight with this “dandy” of a cover, and I imagine most readers feel 
the same.

Ruth Berman

Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2007 15:02:05 -0600
From: “Ruth Berman” <berma005 at umn.edu>
Subject: [Regalia] barrel birds

It’s fun to see the barrel birds as occurring in “Captain Santa.” J.L. Bell 
had commented in “Lucjy Bucky” discussion that he had thought the barrel 
birds occurring there as minor characters (sweeping up stardust) and with an 
appearance in the illos only, not in the text of “Gnome King,” might have 
been Neill’s invention, growing maybe out of doodles that he felt would go 
well as book illos. But since they’re in the text of “Captain Santa,” it 
looks as if Neill’s decision to bring them to Oz grew out of RPT’s text here 
(“Captain Santa” being just a year or two earlier than “Gnome King”). RPT’s 
description of them as looking like flour-barrels seems very old-fashioned 
now. We just don’t seem to have barrels round houses or even in grocery 
stores very much anymore, do we? We don’t keep things like pickles or flour 
in barrels anymore — don’t need such large quantities of flour on hand with 
most people getting store-boughten bread instead of baking their own, and 
I’m not sure what did in pickle-barrels. Beer can still be bought in kegs, 
but otherwise we don’t seem to use barrels much nowadays either for storage 
or for transportation?

Ruth Berman

Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2007 13:16:21 -0800 (PST)
From: Scott Hutchins <scottandrewhutchins at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Regalia] barrel birds

Barrels are still fairly common, but these days they’re usually made from metal or plastic, so they have a very different look to them.

Scott Andrew Hutchins

Date: Wed, 26 Dec 2007 14:59:30 -0600
From: “Ruth Berman” <berma005 at umn.edu>
Subject: [Regalia] barrels

Scott Hutchins <scottandrewhutchins at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Barrels are still fairly common, but these days they’re usually made from 
> metal or plastic, so they have a very different look to them. >

Yes, a straight-sided metal barrel of oil looks very different from the old 
wooden barrels. It occurred to me that besides losing the flour barrels and 
pickle barrels and apple barrels that used to stand in grocery stores, we’ve 
lost the cracker barrels. We still have references to cracker-barrel 
philosphers, but no one actually sitting on a barrel of crackers opining 
away. (How about Hyde Park orators in London? — do they still have wooden 
soap crates to stand on, or do they use different kinds of stands now, or 
not speechify at all and blog instead?)

Ruth Berman

Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2008 14:55:05 -0700
From: Bell Snickle <bell-snickle at hotmail.com>
Subject: [Regalia] The Curious Cruise of Captain Santa


I’m trying to finish “The Curious Cruise of Captain Santa” while it’s still the BCF.
I’m about halfway through and plan to finish the rest tomorrow but I had a couple of comments I wanted
to add while they were fresh in my mind.

I thought it was interesting what a contrast Jim’s prior socio-economic status was in comparison to most
of the American boys Thompson used as heroes in her Oz books.  Bob Up from “Cowardly Lion” is the
only one I can think of who didn’t seem comfortably middle class.  Of course, just as Jim is given a home
in the North Pole fantasyland by Santa, Bob Up was the only one of Thompson’s American boys to be given
a permanent home in Oz.  While Bob’s orphanage sounded pretty grim, Santa finding an apparently homeless,
friendless, orphan child laborer asleep on a rooftop on Christmas Eve is positively Dickensian.  It would have
been interesting if Jim’s character had been developed a bit more though I suppose that might not have
fit into a book this slight.

Did I miss a part in the book where they give an origin to the “Cash language” that Penny speaks
in chapter seven when trying to communicate with the Bombazooky islanders? - ’“Maybe I can help!”
panted Penny, and waddling forward Penny spoke to him, first in penguin and then in the Cash language.’

My copy is one of the Oz club reprints and I thought the quote from Reilly & Lee to John R. Neill mentioned in the
introduction was interesting - “Come on with the pictures and make them funny.”  As I recall one of
Baum’s complaints about Neill was that his illustrations weren’t “funny” enough.  I wonder
if comments like these could be part of the reason Neill simplified his illustration style for the Oz books over
the years?  Really a shame as while I enjoy Neill’s illustrations throughout the series, I prefer when
his work is beautiful rather than funny.

I also enjoyed the imagery Thompson uses when she describes the sunset - “As the waters closed over
the great golden sun” gives an intriguing visual image of the sun traveling underwater.

Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2008 20:02:43 EST
From: <WCam60 at aol.com>
Subject: Re: [Regalia] The Curious Cruise of Captain Santa

I’ve always assumed that the continuing simplification of Neill’s artwork in 
the post-Emerald City Oz books was a direct result of Baum’s complaints. He 
was certainly doing magazine work that was as complex as any of his earlier 
illustrations well into the 20’s.

Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2008 12:20:35 +0000 (GMT)
From: Boq Aru <boq_aru at sbcglobal.net>
Subject: [Regalia] Curious Cruise of Captain Santa

Reread it and reloved it. I consider it to be a borderland Oz book even if there’s no
mention of Oz and things got shifted to the North Pole.

One of the things I like about it is that it is very non-politically correct. One thing that
bothers me about topical humor is when the past has to be trimmed to fit the present. A little
too procrustean for my taste. And where the text isn’t NPC the illustrations are.

Huggerumbo is a great name for the bear. Not only are bears known as huggers but the ending could
be read as Latinish for all around, and smooshed up as rumbo which would be the male form of rumba,
for dancing which bears are known for, also reminiscent of rumble which sounds like growling, which
bears are known to do. All in all, a very satisfactory name.

On the other hand, Penny for a penguin isn’t much until it comes to speaking the Cash language
as in Penny = Money.

Soup again? Where do those cannibals get those big cauldrons. Large as the ones use in Minnesota in
a pullyu party. 50 galloners.

Skip ropes turning aside spears bothered me as a kid. It seemed a bit chancy.

And the dolls becoming unalive when they were brought over bothered me muchly as a kid and I’m
not too happy about it now. Kind of a sad ending as far as I was concerned. Squeek!

Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2008 10:40:32 -0600
From: “Ruth Berman” <berma005 at umn.edu>
Subject: [Regalia] captain santa

Bell Snickle <bell-snickle at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Did I miss a part in the book where they give an origin to the “Cash 
> language” that Penny speaks in chapter seven when trying to communicate 
> with the Bombazooky islanders? - ’“Maybe I can help!” panted Penny, and 
> waddling forward Penny spoke to him, first in penguin and then in the Cash 
> language.’
>

I think the idea is a pun — someone named Penny could be expected to talk 
“Sense.” Considering that RPT was working on “Hungry Tiger” at the same time 
as “Captain Santa” (both came out in 1926), she probably had Fi-Nance puns 
fresh in mind from the Downtown section of HT.

Ruth Berman

Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2008 10:56:14 -0700
From: Bell Snickle <bell-snickle at hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Regalia] The Curious Cruise of Captain Santa


Finished “Captain Santa” on Saturday.  The discovery of Neptune’s chimney was a bit
reminiscent of the hole in the sea that takes Captain Salt to Seeweegia in “Captain Salt.”
Thompson does a nice job in describing the sea journey throughout the book actually.

On the downside, she relies on coincidences to move the plot along much as she did in many of her Oz books.
Especially on the rocking island when Santa just happens to grab toy saddles and bridles before going ashore
and then Jim inadvertently captures the whole rocking animal herd.

The voyage home at the end of “Captain Santa” is a little sad with the dolls being terrified
into silence by the setting sun and then emerging lifeless on the other side of the sunset.  It seems like
it might be kind of traumatic for a child to read but Thompson evidently felt confident kids could handle it.
In some ways it reminded me of the ending of her “The Princess of Cozytown” story.

Still overall an enjoyable read, between the barrel birds and Neill’s illustrations it really does
have a Borderland-of-Oz feel to it.

Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:28:42 -0600
From: “Ruth Berman” <berma005 at umn.edu>
Subject: [Regalia] santa toys

Bell Snickle <bell-snickle at hotmail.com> wrote:
> The discovery of Neptune’s chimney was a bit reminiscent of the hole in 
> the sea that takes Captain Salt to Seeweegia in “Captain Salt.”  Thompson 
> does a nice job in describing the sea journey throughout the book 
> actually. >

Sea-scenery generally seemed to bring out a lot of her best.

> The voyage home at the end of “Captain Santa” is a little sad with the 
> dolls being terrified into silence by the setting sun and then emerging 
> lifeless on the other side of the sunset.  It seems like it might be kind 
> of traumatic for a child to read but Thompson evidently felt confident 
> kids could handle it.  In some ways it reminded me of the ending of her 
> “The Princess of Cozytown” story. >

Baum has some similarly obstreperous toys who get abruptly silenced in “Dot 
and Tot.” This is a repeat of a comment I made a while back, but this kind 
of fear of live toys is apparently a common motif in toy stories. Lois R. 
Kuznets wrote an interesting book some years back, “When Toys Come Alive: 
Narratives of Animation, Metamorphosis, and Development,” and toys who come 
alive and then are too much to cope with are one of the themes that she 
found cropping up a lot, not even counting Baum & RPT. (She has some 
discussion of the Scarecrow, as I recall, but didn’t include Baum’s non-Oz 
books or any RPT in her sample.)

I sent a copy of “The Princess of Cozytown” to her one time, addressing it 
c/o the publisher, so if she ever feels like revisiting the topic, I imagine 
she’ll have some comment on it. Of course, with “The Princess of Cozytown,” 
the toys’ loss of animation isn’t presented as being the toys’ fault in 
anyway — it’s their bad luck in having their child grow up. It’s sort of 
the other side of A.A. Milne’s “The House at Pooh Corner,” where the 
narrator softens the sadness by asserting that Christopher Robin the child 
is in some way immortal, and somewhere is still to be found playing with 
Pooh and the other toys. And, for that matter, so long as the books go on 
getting read, that’s even true — sort of.

Ruth Berman

Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2008 20:03:54 -0500
From: “Nathan DeHoff” <fablesto at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Regalia] The Curious Cruise of Captain Santa

On Jan 28, 2008 12:56 PM, Bell Snickle <bell-snickle at hotmail.com> wrote:
> The voyage home at the end of “Captain Santa” is a little sad with the dolls being terrified
into silence by the setting sun and then emerging lifeless on the other side of the sunset.  It seems like
it might be kind of traumatic for a child to read but Thompson evidently felt confident kids could handle it.
In some ways it reminded me of the ending of her “The Princess of Cozytown” story.

In addition to the examples of toys becoming lifeless that Ruth gave,
you could perhaps add the China Country from WIZARD, since the
Princess tells Dorothy that she would be unable to move outside of her
own land.

Nathan

Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2008 16:57:24 -0700
From: Bell Snickle <bell-snickle at hotmail.com>
Subject: [Regalia] Captain Santa - Living Dolls & Cash Lullabies


Interesting comments, I remembered the scene from “Dot & Tot” but hadn’t thought of the
Dainty China Country.  The “Dot & Tot” scene I found creepy as well but for a different reason.
I thought how the dolls lay sleeping/comatose anytime other than when the Queen wanted them to amuse her gave
Merryland’s Valley of the Dolls an eerily sterile feel.  The Doll Island Santa finds in
“Curious Cruise” and the Dainty China Country at least feel more like functioning, if bizarre,
communities.  The Kuznets books sounds interesting, I’ll have to check it out someday.

And thanks for the comments on Penny and the Cash language as well.  It still seems odd to me but that is
most likely what Thompson meant.  Near the end of the book (right before the Chimney Pot crosses over the
sunset home) there’s a mention of Penny soothing the doll babies by singing a Cash lullaby which does
present a pleasing aural concept of songs made by gently jingling coins.

Date: Mon, 4 Feb 2008 14:16:58 -0600
From: “Ruth Berman” <berma005 at umn.edu>
Subject: [Regalia] cash & carry

Bell Snickle <bell-snickle at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Near the end of the book (right before the Chimney Pot crosses over the 
> sunset home) there’s a mention of Penny soothing the doll babies by 
> singing a Cash lullaby which does present a pleasing aural concept of 
> songs made by gently jingling coins. >

Yes, there are many lullabies in the Cash language. Probably the best loved 
is “Pennies from Heaven,” but there are also “Pop Goes the Weasel” (“a penny 
for a weasel”), “Hot Cross Buns” (“one a penny, two a panny”), the “White 
Knight’s Song” (“and these I do not sell for gold ... but for a copper 
halfpenny, and that will purchase nine”), “My Ma Gave Me a Penny” (“I bought 
some chewin’ gum”). Joel Grey’s performance of “Money Makes the World Go 
Around” is too intense for lulling purposes. Untranslatable into Cash are “I 
got plenty of Nuthin” and “Got no diamond, got no pearl.”

Ruth Berman

Date: Mon, 04 Feb 2008 16:42:36 -0500
From: <agannaway7 at aol.com>
Subject: [Regalia] CURIOUS CRUISE OF CAPTAIN SANTA article in 1926 OZMAPOLITAN

Today I recalled something relevant to the current BCF discussion: 
There was an article based on CAPTAIN SANTA in the 1926 edition of THE 
OZMAPOLITAN, Reilly & Lee’s occasional Oz-promoting newsletter. Hungry 
Tiger Press has placed a PDF of that OZMAPOLITAN online:

http://www.hungrytigerpress.com/tigertreats/ozmapolitan_1926.pdf

The issue in question was meant to advertise the release of THE HUNGRY 
TIGER OF OZ, so Hungry Tiger Press’s proliferation of the text seems 
particularly appropriate.

Atticus Gannaway

Date: Mon, 04 Feb 2008 17:01:22 -0700
From: Ivan Van Laningham <ivanlan at pauahtun.org>
Subject: Re: [Regalia] CURIOUS CRUISE OF CAPTAIN SANTA article in 1926 OZMAPOLITAN


Hi All—
I printed the PDF off and read the Captain Santa article:  “One of the 
greatest sea mysteries of all time.”  ;-)

Metta,
Ivan

<agannaway7 at aol.com> wrote:
> Today I recalled something relevant to the current BCF discussion: 
> There was an article based on CAPTAIN SANTA in the 1926 edition of THE 
> OZMAPOLITAN, Reilly & Lee’s occasional Oz-promoting newsletter. Hungry 
> Tiger Press has placed a PDF of that OZMAPOLITAN online:
> 
> http://www.hungrytigerpress.com/tigertreats/ozmapolitan_1926.pdf
> 
> The issue in question was meant to advertise the release of THE HUNGRY 
> TIGER OF OZ, so Hungry Tiger Press’s proliferation of the text seems 
> particularly appropriate.
> 
> Atticus Gannaway
> 
> 

— 
Ivan Van Laningham
God N Locomotive Works
http://www.pauahtun.org/
http://www.python.org/workshops/1998-11/proceedings/papers/laningham/laningham.html
Army Signal Corps:  Cu Chi, Class of ’70
Author:  Teach Yourself Python in 24 Hours