28 November 1999 - Winnie the Pooh

Dorothy Parker’s famous Constant Reader review of The House at Pooh Corner (“Tonstant Weader fwowed up”) reminds me that Winnie the Pooh, like Barney, is so tightly crafted to appeal to children that he can be nauseating to adults—except, of course, to adults who grew up on Winnie the Pooh.

Entertainment technology is always advancing. The incandescent idea of pushing the capture age back to infancy with the Teletubbies will keep our civilization flying high, like Icarus.