Fuse 8 n’ Kate: The Wedding Procession of the Rag Doll & the Broom Handle and Who Was In It by Carl Sandburg, ill. Harriet Pincus
“People, I don’t promote taking drugs, but…”
Time for a NEW cult classic! I’ve been searching for this book for years, but I was completely unable to get my hands on it… until now. Apparently it was republished back in 2017 , and I was able to find it at The Rabbit hOle’s bookstore a couple weeks ago. IS it the longest picture book title featured on this podcast? We think so, but only if you cut out anything that has a subtitle. In the meantime, we speculate about Pincus’s love of the booty, what the Broom Handle owes The Simpsons, and Kate even works in a Bob’s Burgers reference (so, really, there’s something for everyone here).
Listen to the whole show here on Soundcloud or download it through iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play, PlayerFM, Audible, Amazon Music, or your preferred method of podcast selection.
Show Notes:
Kate wasn’t lying about that cinnamon roll/chili combo. Even The Smithsonian Magazine talked about it.
PIncus returns! Fans of Tell Me a Mitzi may wish to check out this book as well.
Alas, we cannot credit the Broom Handle’s look with John Travolta, but since this book came out in 1967 and that film was released in 1977 I think we now know who was influencing whom.
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Kate says he doesn’t look like Sideshow Bob. I disagree. Does anyone else see it?
pipesinkidlit will be so pleased that we found this one!
I love this gathering of friends (Whisk Broom, Furnace Shovel, and Coffee Pop) because when you’re a kid anything can become a toy. And if you’re the same kind of kid that I was, you might have a tendency to marry them off to one another on the fly.
That’s how you get a gal, fellas. Just glue her some prunes. Boss move.
This is the cat who is clearly saying, “Well, isn’t that special.”
Juicy booty call! There were a bunch of ’em in this book. This is just a sampling:
Kate’s been sick for the past 2 months and this character? Kate FEELS this person.
I consider this to be the lazy black sheep, no good, younger brother of Alice’s White Rabbit.
Proto-Louise Belcher from Bob’s Burgers. I just love how she’s looking directly at the reader.
Kate points out that there’s something kind of Sendakian to this kid and lion. The lion looks a little bit like Pierre’s but he’s a bit more anthropomorphized here.
Kate Recommends: Strike Force Five
Betsy Recommends: Is This Thing On? (and its beautiful shot of the Jefferson Market Branch of NYPL)
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 Kirkus, 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 BlueSky at: @fuse8.bsky.social
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I think I read the Rootabaga Stories when I was young, and my vague memory is that they all have a similar level of trying a little too hard to be whimsical. The long title is clearly a stylistic choice by Sandburg. The book is available on Project Gutenberg (https://gutenberg.org/cache/epub/27085/pg27085-images.html), and there are some stories with titles that are even longer. “The Story of Rags Habakuk, the Two Blue Rats, and the Circus Man Who Came with Spot Cash Money,” for example, or “The Potato Face Blind Man Who Lost the Diamond Rabbit on His Gold Accordion.”
Well, Dan, you’ve just earned yourself a reading of your comment on the next recording. And may I say, excellent work, sir. I suspected that of Sandburg, but couldn’t say it myself.
I have no idea what a potato pan is or was, but it was definitely a thing. My grandfather, who loved word play, used to share anagrams and palindromes with our family. His favorite palindrome? “Sit on a potato pan, Otis!”