Fuse 8 n’ Kate: The Philharmonic Gets Dressed by Karla Kuskin, ill. Marc Simont
Having recently read the new book Ready, Set, Run! The Amazing New York City Marathon by Leslie Kimmelman, illustrated by Jessie Hartland, I was reminded of the old chestnut The Philharmonic Gets Dressed. Then, suddenly, it occurred to me that we’d never ever done this particular book on our podcast. Now I know that Kate expects me to bring her Halloween-related fare and ONLY Halloween-related fare in October, but with five weeks of Mondays in this month, I simply could not comply. But isn’t getting dressed part of . . . part of, um . . . part of Halloween? Okay, fine, it’s a stretch. Even so, it appears to be this podcast’s first Karla Kuskin and first Marc Simont on our show. And I’d say they’re worth diving into, wouldn’t you?
Listen to the whole show here on Soundcloud or download it through iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play, PlayerFM, or your preferred method of podcast selection.
Show Notes:
As dedications go, I’ve never seen this one before.
Kate’s theory is that THIS is Charlie.
With its 1982 publication date, I’m fascinated to learn that sock garters were still a thing.
What is this? It appears to be a sort of spanx/garter belt combo.
Kate’s putting out a poll for this section. The book says that 45 men stand up to get into their pants and that 47 men sit down to do it. Do these sound like reasonable numbers to you?
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All the points, ALL the points, to the conductor for having a painting of himself in his own home.
If you had to pick your favorite sequence in this book, it would HAVE to be the tie-tying section, don’t you think?
And if anyone ever asks you what picture book contains an ad for hemorrhoid cream, remember that it is THIS one! Additional Thought: This entire image is a New Yorker short story in and of itself.
Filed under: Fuse 8 n' Kate
About Betsy Bird
Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Horn Book, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on Twitter: @fuseeight.
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Betsy, I remember this book. I once owned a copy, given away over the years with hundreds (thousands?) of others. I wonder now about its whereabouts. 1982? I had been teaching for nineteen years by that time. I wonder if I shared it with students? I wonder if the illustrations and text would be offensive to book banners today? I can’t wait to listen to this podcast later today to find out what you and Kate have to say.
The illustration of the woman and her garter belt (girdle?) brought back unhappy memories. I don’t remember when I was allowed to trade pants for dresses and skirts in the classroom and when did women begin ditching girdles? When did garter belts give way to pantyhose? Does anyone still wear pantyhose today? For sure, not everything was “better in the olden days”!
P.S. Leaving Maine soon for Arizona. On the way on October 15th I’ll stop in Brunswick to see the Robert McCloskey Art of Wonder Exhibit. His work is showcased all over Maine. I wish you were here to share it with me.
Gender disparity has been huge in orchestras. The NY Philharmonic only reached gender parity in 2022. So yeah, it could have been adjusted for fiction, but it would have been really aspirational for the time. in 1992 there were 29 female musicians.
Vienna Philharmonic didn’t allow women to audition until 1997!!
I believe Aeolian is one of the types of scales – there is Lydian, Mixolydian, and others, all with Greek names: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeolian_mode
I’ve enjoyed so many of your podcasts, thank you Betsy and Kate for the fun and insight!
Because Betsy is looking for family show suggestions, I wanted to give you a handful that we have landed on because we have the same problem when we sit down for family TV— it’s tricky to appease a wide range of ages etc. We watch some of the shows you mentioned and I’m going to try your suggestion for old twilight zone episodes!
Hear are some we enjoy that your family might like:
The Middle, The Goldbergs, Mon, Psych, Guys Grocery Games, leave it to Beaver., the world, according to Jeff Goldblum… and if you’re into animated, we like Gravity Falls and Clarence. 🙂
Oh, thank you! We’re huge fans of Gravity Falls already, but hadn’t tried a lot of these. Thank you!