Tianli

February 15, 2002

dear daniel pinkwater,

the rest of my family and i are great fans of your books. i am wondering if captain shep nesterman is based on a real person. see, my father lived in chicago in the 60s, and he knew this guy, known as the chicken man of maxwell st. this man would set hit hat sown on the sidewalk, and the chicken would walk around and around the hat. he would tell people that as soon as there was enough money in the hat the chicken would do a trick…then he would say that there wasn’t quite enough….as soon as there was a considerable amount of money in the hat, he would put the hat on his head, the chicken would fly up on top of it, and he would walk away.

i also wanted to tell you about this guy that i met in central sq.(cambridge, mass), who really reminded me of someone out of one of your books. i was walking around with my photography teacher, looking for things to, well, photograph. we came across this house which had this huge purple fench, and on it were things like “The intergalactic it’s not what you look like but how you move that counts mostly restaurant” and “INSTRUCTION IN ELECTRO MAGNETIC MARTIAL ARTS TM. empowering and using your electro magnetic energy field. karma free”. i have some pictures of it, but they didn’t come out very good. anyway, we went over to the gate, so that we could take pictures of the house itself, which was also very interesting. i saw what looked like a pamphlet next to the door. i sneaked in through the gate and went up the front steps to grab it. just as i was going back down the stairs, the door opened, and the skinniest guy i have ever seen in my life stood in the doorway. “i was wondering when you two would come in,” he said. we sort of smiled nervously. then he said, “don’t you want to come in and see the inside? i’ll tell you the whole story.” so we went in. the inside of his house was really nice. it had rainbow waves and swirls on the walls, and couches everywhere. then he told us the story. he said that the house had been an old hotel at one time, but then went out of business. the owners decided to rent it out to people, and he was one of the residents. at that time, the house was a few blocks away. then a monster star market(which is still there now) wanted to build their new store there. one by one the houses either got tore down or moved, until he was the last person living around there. the city told him that he had to move, too, but he said he wouldn’t budge. then he told us that he forced them to move the house to another neighborhood by using his electro magnetic martial arts. we were actually done with the photography lesson at that point, and had to leave, but he showed us some pictures before we left. it was pretty easy to recognise the house, a few blocks away with no fence. there was also another picture of the house on wheels.

after we left, i looked at the pamphlet, and it turns out that he is offering a class in electro magnetic martial arts for 400 dollars. i wanted to take it, but my parents wouldn’t let me unless i paid for it with my own money.

thankyou for reading this, i hope it was interesting.

sincerely,

Tianli dunn-fyler

PS-i’m sorry i didn’t send this to your website email. it’s my computer’s fault.

pps-i REALLY love your books. thanks for writing them. when me and my friend isis get on the phone, we read eachother part of a sentence, amd the other has to finish the sentence and say which daniel pinkwater book it’s from. thanks again.

Linda Turina

February 15, 2002

I lead a second grade reading group in Portland, Oregon. We recently read Blue Moose; we loved it. At the end of the story, the moose leaves to visit his uncle and Mr. Breton asks him to send a postcard. Each of my little moose students is going to write that postcard. They want to know where the postcards can be mailed. They are currently addressed to Mr. Breton, Mr. Breton’s and Moose Cafe, Maine. Do you have a more precise address for us? We would love it if we could find out what Mr. Breton thinks about the moose’s postcard.

Thank you for writing such a marvelous story.

Adam Lang

February 11, 2002

Just enjoyed the latest (I think?) Chinwag theatre. Always a treat, especially when I get to listen to it on the way to a rehearsal with my local theatre group, the Stanford Savoyards.

Anyway, just one thing. When you said that ‘Put out the lights and cry’ was liver and onions, you were quite right. But when you said that it was because you could find it in the dark, I’m afraid you were, well, in the dark.

As for the real derivation, well…

…does the phrase ‘Liver and lights’ ring any bells?

Leonard Dixon

February 10, 2002

Hi again Daniel:

The email address I used to have for you doesn’t work any more, so if you’d like to write to me, here’s my address: (removed)

If you do write to me at that address, or if you reply on this website, please – say where it was that we last saw each other in person – so I can be sure it’s you!

Of course, neither of us are quite who we were (thank popsicle!), so

. . .

Fare forward.

Best, from

Temporarily boring Leonard

A Reader

February 9, 2002

Mr. Pinkwater

Can you please tell me what the heck is in a borgelnuskie.

Trisha Warren

February 5, 2002

Hey Daniel,

You are one of my faviorite author’s. I like Lizard Mucis that is a great book. Well in school we are doing a book report on you and i am trying to find facts about you like your life,attuitudes and beliefs and stuff like that,but I am having a hard time doing this can you e-mail some of your life stories and what you believe and what your attitudes please

Your Friend

Trisha Warren

Christa Neu

February 4, 2002

there was a piece this morning about avocado poaching

where are the snarkout boys when you need them?

James Thompson

January 31, 2002

I just looked up the creator of the Snarkout Boys, and found Pinkwater, D. I read both Snarkout books as a pre-teen, back in the mid-80’s, and I am glad to now have the opportunity to say thanks. Thanks. Maybe my daughter will want to read them, too. Even if she doesn’t, I suppose I’ll have to track down the books to refresh my memory on how fun they were. I even took to “snarking-out” on my own, as a youth, inspired by these books. I hope that you continue to enjoy great success, Mr. Pinkwater. Thanks for a good time, no matter how long ago…

Steve Harper

January 29, 2002

Daniel,

I just finished _Uncle Boris in the Yukon_ and enjoyed it immensely, both your words and Jill’s illustrations. So I went to your web site to look for dog pictures and found only the one of you two with Lulu (Lulu’s a doll.) and the one with a shepherd-like critter sticking its head out of the car window.

How about some more pictures of your animals?

Regards,

Steve Harper

Fayetteville, NC

Residing with a golden retriever, a husky, and two cats.

Caytha Jentis

January 29, 2002

Back Again-

Sally is doing her 3rd Grade Critics Choice Project on Fat Men From Space. She is planning on dressing like Hanam when she reads her book report to the class. Anyway you can send some words of wisdom from the Fat Men for her to share with the class during her presentation. She also plans to bring lots of burgers… The report is Feb 4th..

All the best,

Caytha

P.S. She says that you’re her favorite author.

Sandra Nelson

January 23, 2002

Hi! I am a fifth-grader in Tempe, Arizona who just finished reading Borgel. I really liked the book, so I wanted to know if you have written anything else about any of the characters in the book. I think you are a great author, and your writing is really funny. I especially like the way characters talk to eachother in the story, and the names you choose for different characters. I hope to hear from you soon.

Best wishes,

Sandra Nelson

Nick Clark

January 23, 2002

Dear Mr. Pinwater,

I greatly admire your programming on week-end edition with Scott Simon. I am also the founding Director of The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art scheduled to open in late 2002 in Amherst, MA [see www.picturebookart.org and I listen with great interest to the segments you do–on numerous occasions you have motivated me to race out to my local bookseller to add to my collection. I do, however, take exception to your referring to the genre as “kid” lit, I think this is demeaning and does an unintentional disservice to a body of literature that is afterall the cornerstone to both our verbal and our visual literacy. I hope you or Mr. Simon will put aside the irrestible opportunity for the “bon mot,” and provide a more complimentary lead-in to what is always an enriching segment. I appreciate your consideration in this matter.

Sincerely,

Nick Clark

H. Nichols B. Clark

Director

The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art

Jeff Miller

January 22, 2002

Hello everyone!

I am an English conversation teacher for kids in S. Korea and would love to get ahold of various Pinkwater classics in Korean for the kids to enjoy. Does anyone know if Korean translations of any Pinkwater works are available? I teach 5-15 year-olds so smaller picture books like the “Larry” series on up to young adult like “Lizard Music” would be great. Please help.

A Reader in Seattle

January 22, 2002

Dear Mister Daniel Pinkwater, Sir.

[Or is that Sir Mister Dear Daniel Pinkwater? Or … Oh never mind.]

Dear Sir.

Many years ago, I heard your voice on my car radio. I was in Arizona and it was hot. You were talking about walking around in a [presumably cool] mall and getting into a light sabre fight with a boy who had been following you around. I also learned during the same radio broadcast, that you were a “children’s book” author. Not too long after that, my son was born. I decided that my son must read quality children’s books. In spite of this, I never forgot my experience with your voice and decided to provide my son with book that were written by yourself. To read. He read lots of them and still has some of them. Later, my daughter came along and she discovered your books for herself (although she seemed to read an entirely different set of books than her brother; hers were thinner). Now, my son is in high school and I am up past midnight waiting for him to finish a research project for school that’s due for his history class in the morning. Obviously, sir, one of us is getting older. And I think it’s all because I listened to your radio programs on NPR. [Perhaps I have symptoms of early- onset Pinkwater’s disease.]

No matter. The interesting thing is that I found this website. My sister is in a class for people who want to be librarians and she and her classmates were partcipating in an “on-line chat” group which was discussing things that only librarians truly want to know (like how to arrange books in public so that thy can find them and people like us can’t even though we are looking right at them …). Anyway, their teacher, who may or may not have actually have been online during their chat (or may actually, and more likely, have been on some beach in Mexico at the time with her laptop and wireless modem card) was discussing the difficulties of filing books by authors who use many different names for themselves on books that they write and she (for some obscure reason) referred to you. I believe she may even have submitted something to this very same forum, probably from that very same beach in Mexico.

But, more importantly, it is later now. And I am in Seattle. And it is cold (and wet) outside. And I am no longer in Arizona listening to my radio. And my son has disappeared, which is a good sign, as it may imply that he has actually finished his homework for the night. So, once again, I am moved to remark that one of us has gotten older. And I am sure that it is you, sir, as I have already admitted my guilt. And so, if I had a virtual light sabre, I would challange you to a virtual light sabre fight in a virtual mall somewhere in America. But I don’t. And, certainly, neither of us would be that childish. Alas.

So. For now, I bid you adieu and adios. But remember, the mall is not big enough for both of us.

P.S. Thank you for bringing me so many enjoyable evenings of reading “children’s books” to my children and thank you also for those NPR recordings that I did get to listen to so many years ago while driving to work in my car …

Channing the Wonderdog

January 22, 2002

Hello there! My name is Channing, and I am the accordion player and unicyclist of the infamous Cyclown Circus. We are starting a tour in Europe this May, doing big big shows for the shorties, and it has been decided that you would be the ideal recruitment at this point. I think that you would be perfect as a payaso. If you feel up to it (all our tours are done on bicycles… I ride a 6 foot tall bicycle around the countries, and carry an accordion and a unicycle, among other things. According to your website, you weigh 400 pounds, which may or may not be accurate, but would possibly hinder your ability to ride a bike. We could certainly make a special bike that could theoretically be easier for a man of your stature to ride) then let me know. We also teach circus classes and other such workshops, so you could presumably lead a writing workshop… If not, your support would be admired. Check out www.nomadicevolution.net/cyclown

Thanks Jim!

love,

Channing the Wonderdog

P.S. Idea for story: person genetically engineers a tail and fuses it to butt muscles so he/she becomes a monkey. Hooray!