Off Topic Wednesday | Gilbert

This is off topic, but as you’ll see in a few days, not wildly so as we’ll be running into Pindar again soon.

I’d like to introduce Gilbert, the old hippy dog with an honorary graduate degree in Philosophy. He is a student of Aristotle, and ancient Greek history. He is a senior member of Missy’s pack. As with all of the characters in Miss Missy’s School: A Pack of Farm Dogs Starts a School, Gilbert–or Gil as we call him–has a minor foible. He frequently offers good advise or commentary on the situations in which Missy and her pack–including Tiger the Cat–find themselves. He does this by way of quoting a famous person. There is one problem, though. Here’s an example, from just a few minutes after the organizational meeting, which was attended by all of the animals on the farm who were interested in the potential new school, broke up.

See the problem? “We should ‘enjoy to the full the resources that are within reach,’ as someone once said.”

Gilbert never tells us who said what! He just says, “As someone once said.”

And because Miss Missy’s School is not just a story–it’s also a place where kids and their grownups can learn something–we can’t have that. So what you’re seeing is a call-out at the end of the chapter that tells the reader a bit about Pindar, who Gil is quoting. And so it goes with all of the “As Someone Once Saids.”

Off topic and also shameless self-promotion. Miss Missy’s School is on sale at Amazon for $5, which is a steal. If you want to take a look at the book, and see how amazingly different it is from other kid books–for example, there’s an “Index of Missy-isms (Missy speaks frequently in malapropisms and we can’t have that either), Quotation first words, Person, and Old Things & Ways”– there is a preview.

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