Fuse 8 n’ Kate: The Best Nest by P.D. Eastman

Another book by the man who spit in the face of the House of Un-American Activities Committee (not literally but pretty close). My love of P.D. Eastman knows no bounds. I pretty much intend to cover his entire oeuvre before this podcast ends someday. Kate delves real deep into the marital status of dear Mr. and Mrs. Bird here (including Mr. Bird’s “extracurricular activities”, if you get my gist). We discuss how this is like a “very small version of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds” (their reign of terror is swift and tiny). We wonder about color layering, and we get to sing the “Toldja So” song.

Listen to the whole show here on Soundcloud or download it through iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, PlayerFM, or your preferred method of podcast selection.

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Show Notes:

Is there a podcast called Cake Talk? No, but there is a podcast called Let’s Talk Cake. As far as I’m concerned, that’s close enough.

Check out Eastman’s amazing life here. When standing before HUAC, and told to name names, he objected and proceeded to say, “The second reason why I decline to answer is that I consider you are bringing me here under subpoena to an unreasonable search and attempt to seize the contents of my mind. I also have an objection to make on the fact that, in a sense, the atmosphere here is one of a trial, and that you have accepted the testimony of witnesses without permitting me to bring witnesses of my own.” You can learn more in Forbidden Animation: Censored Cartoons and Blacklisted Animators in America by Karl F. Cohen.

The men in this town literally have nothing to do. The possible exception being Mr. Parker, of course.

I have experience with the stupidity of robins and the terrible terrible choices they make when trying to build nests, so in spite of their yellow chests I’m convinced these guys must be part of the robin family. I mean, check out the color of that egg!

Pretty Blue Glow did such a complete rundown of this book that it one-upped us (years before we even decided to do this book). In this blog post, physics professor Thomas D. Gutierrez looked up Waldoboro, Maine to identify the church where the birds make their doomed nest. It’s a wonderful piece. You see, like us, he noticed this mail going into the mailbox. The town? Completely legible and legit.

Though, I do have to ask, what kind of church has haystacks outside its front door . . . in a town?

It’s bad enough he stole her soda straw, but did he have to take the very whites out of her eyes too?

If find this entirely hanging mattress idea deeply disturbing. How does this even work? What happens when it rains? I can literally feel the wetness seeping into my jeans when I look at it.

We had a real question about color layering when it comes to the following images. Can we get an illustrator out there to explain to Kate why one color would be layered over another?

These are the most emotionally fraught endpapers I’ve ever seen.

It just seems weird to make this into a Christmas ornament. And even if you did choose a scene, why this one?

Delighted to show you the latest from Alan Silberberg . . . Meet the Matzah! And yes. He does have a tendency to hide.

And Kate’s recommendation involves Something New: Tales From a Makeshift Bride by Lucy Knisley.

Filed under: Fuse 8 n' Kate