Member-only story
The Importance of Being Eccentric
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”Will you please tell me whether I am a complete idiot or not?” I replied, ”My dear fellow, I don’t know. Why are you asking me?” He said, ”Because, if I am a complete idiot, I shall become an aeronaut; but, if not, I shall become a philosopher.”
I told him to write me something during the vacation on some philosophical subject and I would then tell him whether he was complete idiot or not. At the beginning of the following term he brought me the fulfillment of this suggestion. After reading only one sentence, I said to him: ”No, you must not become an aeronaut.” And he didn’t.
~ Bertrand Russell concerning his one time close friend Ludwig Wittgenstein.
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At six years old, little Beverly was put on academic probation after first grade. Her biggest problem was reading. The assigned books were all boring educational stories about polite children. It was thanks to a school librarian’s friendly encouragement that the girl finally liked to read.
After college, Beverly began working as a children’s librarian. She still found children’s books boring. Dick and Jane weren’t at all like lively, curious, funny, angry, unruly real kids.
So Beverly Cleary became an author herself. She wrote Ramona the Pest, Henry Huggins, Ribsy, The Mouse and…
