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Roxann H. Daily

Post #816 – 19990331

March 31, 1999

On the Chinwag Theatre presentation last week concerning moose, you made the comment that you didn’t think moose were dangerous. Actually, according to folks who live in Alaska, moose can be extremely dangerous. Reportedly, they are not very intelligent animals, and have been known to charge for no apparent reason, and may stomp their victim to death.

Daniel replies:

Moose not intelligent animals? Ridiculous. Moose are the most intelligent animal there is--except my father, of course.


Oovnik

Post #815 – 19990328

March 28, 1999

Dear Mr. Pinkwater,

John Scezieca (did I spell it right?) extolled the virtues of your books for middle-school reading in the Time Warp Trio’s “Summer Reading is Killing Me.” The book list for middle schoolers that he has says “pretty much anything by Daniel Pinkwater.” Have you ever met John S? Are you friends?

Daniel replies:

I have never met Jon Scieszka, and we are not friends--but we have friendly feelings for one another, I think. Actually, there is a federal law that Scieszka and I cannot be in the same place at the same time, because of possible warpage.


Jamie M Heise

Post #814 – 19990228

February 28, 1999

I was just re-reading Chicago Days / Hoboken Nights and I couldn’t help noticing that various elements of our favorite Pinkwater novels were loosely based on events which took place in real life. (“Wait-a-minute! I recognize this part… This appears in Five Novels!”) My question is this: is The Education of Robert Nifkin semi-autobiographical? Did you ever have a teacher who fought in the Spanish Civil War? And is there an actual theater like the Snark (and if so, where is it)? Thanks

Daniel replies:

No comment.


Jeanette Zollinger

Post #813 – 19990224

February 24, 1999

Dear Mr. Pinkwater,

I am taking an adolescent literature class at Brigham Young University and I am doing a research project about you. Aren’t you flattered? The project is a little unconventional which is why I have chosen you as my subject. My husband has been a fan of yours for many years and he introduced me to your work. He claims that you have a pet llama and I have also heard you have a pet rhinocerous. I would be interested in knowing if eaither of these assumptions are true and if they are, what are the names of your extraordinary pets? Thank you very much for your time.

Gratefullly yours,

Jeanette Zollinger

Daniel replies:

Our pair of African rhinos are named Melvyn and Phyllis. They are wonderful pets. We've had them for ages. They love to curl up by the fireplace on winter days like this. They come when called, and love to be scratched behind the ears. I like to take Melvyn for walks most mornings, and he gets very excited when he sees me moving toward the car with his leash in my hand. He loves going to the park, and he has special favorites among he other rhinos we meet there. My only criticism of Melvyn is that he becomes overly excited when we are riding in the car, and he sees other rhinos. I would say that rhinos make excellent pets. If they are properly trained and cared for they will return your affection, and can be trustworthy and enjoyable family members.


Gary R. Maslow

Post #812 – 19990223

February 23, 1999

Howdy Mr. Pinkwater. I am a student at Dartmouth College and have started a children’s radio show for the kids at the children’s hospital here, called Mystery and Myth. I heard about your Chinwag theatre radio show and was wondering if you had any advice for a group of students interesting in entertaining children over the radio. I also liked your book Fat Men from Space so much that I ate it, just kidding, but it did look pretty tasty with those burgers on the cover. Yours on the radio,

gary maslow

p.s. I am also in a children’s literature course at dartmouth with Randy Testa and was going to come interview you, but that fell through, I was wondering if I could send you some questions over e-mail and do an interview that way or over the phone. Thanks for the laughs.

Daniel replies:

I wouldn't presume to give advice, but I can tell you a little about our aproach to Chinwag Theater. To make it simple, I'll just say that I think ""Barney"" is an obscenity, and maybe a crime. It's a school for bad taste and there is something unwholesome about those cyborg child actors. So, what Charity Nebbe and I agree upon, and try to keep in mind in making our radio program is that we ought to respect our listeners and not treat them like little idiots. It's not a big deal, but surprising how few people share that attitude. I think that, in his free time, Barney hates children, and eats them. I suggest you approach your local public radio station, and ask them to download Chinwag Theater for you. It's on the satellite, (I think we send it on Wednesdays). It's free for the taking by any non-profit radio station, so do me a favor and suggest to the Program Director that s/he make a copy for station evaluation too. See if you like what we do, if you can identify an approach, and whether you agree with it or not. You're welcome to broadcast the program along with yours if you want to.
Sure we can do something via email, or phone, or tape cassette, but I suggest it be a class project lest I deal with you, and then one of your classmates also wants to question me, etc. You can conduct your Q&A right here in this forum, and allow anyone who's interested to observe the process. Give my best wishes to Randy Testa, and tell him I like this approach better.


Ansel Staton

Post #811 – 19990221

February 21, 1999

Dear Mr. Daniel Pinkwater,

I own a copy of your book Young Adult Novel. In reading it, I have fallen under the impresion that you are some kind of anarchist. Congradulations (in my opinion). I am also interested in anarchy and enjoy listening to such groups as the damned. I am also wondering if your character “Captain Colossal” is taken from the Damned member Captain Sensible. I thank you for your exelent books and also for your intrest in Dadaism.

Sincerely Anselm Staton, Situationist

Daniel replies:

 I am not really specially interested in dada. It's an old and outdated art movement, of which very little, if any, was first-rate. Surrealism would have been better if it weren't so boring, and serious. The Wild Dada Ducks, my characters in the books think they're interested in dada, but pretty much completely misunderstand it. In DEAD END DADA they misunderstand Zen, and in THE DADA BOYS IN COLLITCH they misunderstand everything. My use of dada is a literary device, not an exposition, nor endorsement, of that movement. I have never heard of the Damned. I am not, and have never been, a member of the Anarchist Party.


Lab User

Post #809 – 19990219

February 19, 1999

Dear Sir I am hoping this finds you well. Have you ever discovered a drink called SOBE? If not I must send you soem because Your Lizards are abck and they are producing healthy and quite delicious drinks under the label SOBE. Trust me it is true and by the by I DID read afterlife diet and I thought it was as wonderful as only a Pinkwater Book can be

Daniel replies:

Oh yes, I know and like the SOBE drinks. Interesting the things those lizards get into. See my reply above for news about THE AFTERLIFE DIET.


Jamie M Heise

Post #810 – 19990219

February 19, 1999

Dear Mr. Pinkwater: I would just like to add my voice to the chorus of people crying out for the full text of Young Adults (all three stories). Tell your publisher to get all those out-of-print classics -including the legendary Afterlife Diet- back in print! Speaking of which -what is the address of your publisher? Robert Nifkin doesn’t even list the city it was published in, much less the mailing address. How can we send you stuff, and harass you through the mail if your publisher doesn’t even bother to give us a forwarding address?

Daniel replies:

Never mind the company that published THE EDUCATION OF ROBERT NIFKIN. They are fools. THE AFTERLIFE DIET will almost certainly soon be republished in a new and innovative way. Keep looking around this website for information. Other books of mine are about to be reprinted in a more conventional manner. Among titles of mine you may soon see are FISH WHISTLE; CHICAGO DAYS, HOBOKEN NIGHTS; THE SNARKOUT BOYS AND THE BACONBURG HORROR; THE WORMS OF KUKIMLIMA; YOBGORGLE, MYSTERY MONSTER OF LAKE ONTARIO; and BORGEL. There is also a refurbished THE HOBOKEN CHICKEN EMERGENCY scheduled, with new and better illustrations. And there are new books in progress. I just looked back and read what I've just written--my goodness!


Wyatt Troll

Post #808 – 19990217

February 17, 1999

Hello mr Pinkwater

i have long worshiped the book that is “Devil in the Drain”, much the boy/person i try to be – not buying into the guilt thrown about by others, having the chutzpah to believe in myself.

i take photos and film things, although never for myself. i would like to converse about the possibilty of making a short film of this story. i would very much love to do this. if this is at all possible… …thank you very much, wyatt troll

Daniel replies:

Probably not possible. I have to cling to the possibility that some professional filmmaker, with money, may come along and acquire rights to one of my literary properties. It's a bore, but I need income for things like food, clothing and shelter. So, unless you can write checks, you can't base films on my work. Thanks for the thought.


Paul & Ramona Banik

Post #807 – 19990214

February 14, 1999

Hello from shelby mt some where in the out back my husband and I love any thing that you read. it makes our whole week and hate when we don’t get to hear you. We would love to get t-shits and coffe mugs that you might have and if we could get a picture of youself and Chairty. that you for taking the time to read this lots of love and good times and be good.

Daniel replies:

We don't have t-shirts and coffee mugs, but if you write to chinwag@iastate.edu you might get a button and/or a brochure with a (pretty) picture of Charity and a (scary) picture of me. I am so glad you like the radio program. Please tell the radio station you like it.


Tristan Tzara

Post #806 – 19990208

February 8, 1999

Just out of curiosity, is there any chance of the dAdA boys in Collitch ever becoming an actual *gasp* novel? Or was that just a nasty trick to make those of us who got Young Adults go out and buy all your other books in search of further narration by the ever charming Charles the Cat?

Either way, thank you, oh great coffee-mill, for significantly lowering the dullness of reality.

The Ever-Likeable Tristan Tzara

Daniel replies:

Tristan Tzara (and others) -- As a rule, I do not approve of Multiple Personality Disorder, unless each personality buys its own copy of a given book. Otherwise, profits are curtailed, and I have to answer any number of fan mails vis-a-vis a single copy sold. To answer your question, anything is possible, which is a cliche and a truism. (However, please don't think I'm going to rack my brains for something clever to write, when you'll just be coming back as the feckless teenager, the little girl, the Romanian folksinger, the talking hog, a space traveler, Mao Tsu Tung, etc., etc., etc.)


Christel Gause

Post #805 – 19990205

February 5, 1999

Hey. I want to ask you for your opinion on this recccuring dream I’m having, because it’s probably your fault. At the beginning of the dream I have a large tank of lizards in my house. It’s like 300 gallon rectangular oblong one, and it’s got about fifty lizards in it. All different kinds, iguanas, komodo dragons, geckos, monitors, anoles, chameleons, skinks, horny toads, all kinds. And then I’ll turn my back or leave the room and sometimes I hear a crash, then a moment later I’ll see a flash of green as they all run down the hall past me in some sort of Mongol horde. They’re all running really fast and staying together in a herd. When I try to catch them they scatter, hide or outrun me. I get very angry and frustrated at them, and I fear the moment my mom arrives home to find renegade lizards. Then I wake up. I have this dream at least once a week, or as part of another dream.

Also, my house is alot bigger in the dream than it really is, and I don’t live with my mom. What do you think?

Daniel replies:

Bet on number 237.


Rosemary Caspar

Post #804 – 19990203

February 3, 1999

Dear Mr. Pinkwater:

My whole family has enjoyed reading your books, beginning with The Big Orange Splot and Wuggie Norple to Lizard Music and beyond. I also am a teacher of young children and would like to be share these stories with the budding readers I work with. We have lost our copy of Wuggie Norple and have not been able to find one in the stores or through the big internet book sellers. Is there some way we can get it?

Hoping to hear from you soon,

Rosemary Caspar

Daniel replies:

This is for you, and everyone else reading: Do not lose copies of books by me! As children's books of good quality, they are allowed to go out of print like snowflakes on a hot dachshund. I try...oh, how I try...to get publishers to bring these things out again, explaining each time that library copies are worn out, and a brand-new crop of readers has emerged every three years or so. To this, the publishers usually say, ""But....why should we reissue a book that's been published already, and everybody's seen it?"" Sometimes they say other things, like, ""I think my sleeve is wet."" You may find a copy of Wuggie Norple second-hand in some book shop, or through an internet book-finder. The price is apt to range from less than original retail to over $100.


Oovnik

Post #803 – 19990203

February 3, 1999

Hey, remember me? I joined the Wild Dada Duckettes a while ago. I have decided that my Dada name will be “The Vegitarian Velociraptor.” I also found an interesting avocado fact that neither Osgood Sigerson or Filliping Hades Terwilliger know- members of the parrot family can eat anything humans eat, except avocados. I don’t know why, but avocados are poisonous to parrots and can kill them. Tell Detective Sigerson and Dr. Terwilliger for me, please.

Daniel replies:

Oops! So, it was a horrible oversight that I have a character of mine feeding slices of avocado to a parrot in the unobtainable THE AFTERLIFE DIET? Well, nobody read that book.


Kranzie105

Post #802 – 19990128

January 28, 1999

I confess to never having heard of you (gulp)! But I need your help. My daughter is art major (jr. year) searching for info on Marc Burckhardt, illustrator. She found a small reference to him in Forbes ASAP mentioning your book, The Afterlife Diet. Can you somehow tell her how to get in touch?

This is for a project she has going. If you can help a young artist, I may just have to admit (being slightly overweight, ha) to being intrigued by the information on your website. Perhaps even enough to read something by you. Thanks!

Daniel replies:

Your daughter can communicate with Mr. Burkhardt by writing to him in care of any of his publishers.


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