Tuesday, December 25, 2012

The Cat in the Hat

I have to wear a hat when I am outside in the sun. I have a hat collection, since I have been bald since my 20's. My bald head, pre-cancerous cells there upon dictate it. I wouldn't be in this predicament if we knew back then what we know now about the danger of UV's.

Trying on new hats has been a metaphor during my life, as I have moved through my maze, reinventing myself at every turn.  And, my new book is not accidentally titled: Uncle XOQ: Try on New Hats.  There is  a good story about how that came to be, but that is for another day.

So why "The Cat in the Hat" and the previous Post about Lola and her not knowing about me being a cat. Here is the story:

At work at HD, one of my nicknames is now Dr. Seuss. One day, a fellow employee, Jewish friend coincidentally named Kat, and I were discussing my new book. She wanted to know more and asked if my books were anything like Dr. Seuss books. I said I'd like them to be, but the content is more serious and the illustrations less Alien.

Somehow the conversation turned to my saying that if Jesus lived to today, maybe writing kids books, or at least teaching kids important lessons. He might even have used his carpentry background, like I did, to end up working at HD in Oceanside. We kidded that since we have a large Mexican-American population here his name would have been pronounced "Hay-Seuss."

OK, this sounds very convoluted, but it might help knowing that Kat and I are 2 of the few Jews working at HD in O'side. We frequently chat about the local conservative, Christian, marine folks and how they think so differently than us. And how funny it would be if in there midst they new that I, the Jewish boy Robby from NY, was writing children's books and might be a bit like "Hay-Seuss" would have been. So at that moment, Kat gave me the nickname "Dr Seuss" and she wrote it on my orange apron.

So here is how this all ties together. This Cat (me) always trying on different hats and working at HD was nicknamed by this interesting woman Kat at HD, Dr. Seuss, who wrote "The Cat in the Hat." And even more amazingly and coincidentally, Ancient Egyptians worshipped cats and Lola is an Egyptian Monkey Tailed Terrier.

Let it Be




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