Before You Leap: A Frog's-Eye View of Life's Greatest Lessons by Kermit the Frog was a Christmas present, and having finished it last night, I have now read the last book in my 2006 Christmas loot.

Before You Leap is a two-part book. The first part is a brief, actually very brief, history of the Muppets. Nothing I didn't already know, but Kermit's descriptions of his fellow Muppets are often clever. The Swedish Chef for example: "Here was someone who could get food to disagree with you even before you ate it." (page 50) Actually there's a CD Rom game called Muppets Inside where you can find out how disagreeable—nay, even dangerous—vegetables can be. (Am I revealing too much? Will you respect me the next time I post something serious?)

The second part is a how-to treatise, explaining for the most part how to get along with others. It's heavy on the subject of friendship, the best passage IMHO being a bit of dialogue between Kermit and Fozzie.

Quote
Kermit: Fozzie, do you ever miss your family?
Fozzie: Oh, Kermit, that is the silliest thing I ever heard.
Kermit: Why?
Fozzie: Well, how could I miss you when you're sitting right next to me? (page 216)
And that put me in mind of a conversation I had one Thanksgiving in the 80s. Homer Hickam, curiously enough, was part of the conversation. Now Homer is Huntsville's premier writer, author first of Rocket Boys, which became the movie October Sky. I knew Homer before all his fame when his second wife, active in community theatre, was a friend of mine. One fall I had planned to go home to see my parents in DC for Thanksgiving. MS, however, had other ideas and started to worsen the Tuesday before. I gave up on the idea of home and had dinner with the frequently-mentioned-in-posts Tessa and some other friends, including Homer and his then wife. At one point we were talking about my cancelled plans, and Homer said, "I don't know why you'd want to go home when your family is right here." If nothing else, Before You Leap reminded me of a time before my only reaction to Homer Hickam was jealousy. I find that nice.

Phil, I started A Thousand Splendid Suns this morning. So far it's as close to I-can't-put-it-down as any book gets for me. Review follows in a day or two.

Currently reading: Best American Mystery Stories edited by Lee Child and Otto Penzler. AARGH!