# Just So Stories **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 8, 2003, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-so-stories/180450 "2003-06-08T13:29:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Stanislaus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stanislaus/32/3391_2.png) [@Stanislaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stanislaus)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2003, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-so-stories/180450/21 "2003-06-11T15:18:11Z")
I love these stories. My Dad read them to me frequently particularly the one about the butterfly that stamped its foot - in retrospect, it seems he was trying to make some kind of point. My favourites were the Elephant’s Child, the Cat and the Sing-song of Old Man Kangaroo, which I enjoyed for the rhythms in the prose: > [@](#): > > “Still ran dingo, yellow dog dingo, hungrier and hungrier, grinning like a horse collar, never getting nearer, never getting farther” Man was a genius. Not absolutely sure I’d read How the Leopard Got His Spots to a kid nowadays (“Black’s good enough for a nigger”) but I suspect I’d give it a go and then have a long conversation about how the world has changed since Kipling’s days. Oh, and the Crab getting his shell as well. Top stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Harli](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c0e974/32.png) [@Harli](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harli)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2003, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-so-stories/180450/22 "2003-06-11T18:02:13Z")
Oh wow! I had totally forgotten about _Just So Stories_. It was one of my favourite books when I was younger. I read every story multiple times over. I think I’ll have to throw in another vote for the Alphabet Story. Dang, gotta find me another copy of that. Don’t know what happened to mine. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2003, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-so-stories/180450/23 "2003-06-11T18:35:48Z")
Did you guys forget about the suspenders? ---
**Author:** ![sjc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e5b9ba/32.png) [@sjc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sjc)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2003, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-so-stories/180450/24 "2003-06-11T20:26:04Z")
There are some good animated versions of some of the stories from rabbit ears children’s videos done by well known actors. For example, jack nicholson doing the elephant child and how the camel got its humph. ---
**Author:** ![Myron\_Van\_Horowitzski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Myron\_Van\_Horowitzski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myron_Van_Horowitzski)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2003, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-so-stories/180450/25 "2003-06-11T20:43:22Z")
_Them that take cakes That the Parsee Man bakes Make dreadful mistakes_ Man, some of that stuff is engraved upon my brain. How many stories is the Great Grey-Green Greasy Limpopo River featured in? ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2003, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-so-stories/180450/26 "2003-06-11T21:47:56Z")
I have never read them, but I must say that I am intrigued. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2003, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-so-stories/180450/27 "2003-06-12T01:35:27Z")
Please tell me you didn’t forget about the suspenders! Never forget the suspenders! _The Butterfly that Stamped_ is my favorite for some reason. Elephant’s Child was cool, but the elaborate planning in the Butterfly story was hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![Winkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/41988e/32.png) [@Winkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winkie)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2003, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-so-stories/180450/28 "2003-06-12T02:58:01Z")
I love them all so much, but The Elephant’s Child has always been my favorite. “Come hither, little one,” said the crocodile “and I’ll whisper.” My grandfather read the Just So Stories and The Jungle Book aloud on tape for me when I was just a little Winkie. We lived pretty far away, and he wanted me to know his voice and not be afraid of him on the phone (and he wanted to be able to read to his granddaughter.) More than a couple of decades later, he still calls me Oh Best Beloved. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2003, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-so-stories/180450/29 "2003-06-12T04:45:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by amrussell \* > **I love these stories. My Dad read them to me frequently particularly the one about the butterfly that stamped its foot - in retrospect, it seems he was trying to make some kind of point.** Was he trying to teach you chaos theory? ---
**Author:** ![SkeptiJess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@SkeptiJess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkeptiJess)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2003, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-so-stories/180450/30 "2003-06-12T11:39:09Z")
**Winkie** – your grandfather sounds like a great guy. ---
**Author:** ![OxyMoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e9a140/32.png) [@OxyMoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OxyMoron)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2003, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-so-stories/180450/31 "2003-06-12T15:51:50Z")
Goddamn hamsters. The one time I write a post in which I make a momentous discovery in researching the answer, and it gets et. Anyway, what I discovered was that HarperCollins has released a wonderful series of [recordings](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/069452476X/ref=ase_harpercollinspub/102-1883898-7504924) Boris Karloff made of the Just So Stories. Karloff, born William Henry Pratt and the son of British diplomats, had a marvelous speaking voice and an evident love of children. I grew up with these recordings and credit him, Kipling and Milne (Karloff also recorded _Pooh_ readings) for my love of language. What saddens me is that so few children grow up with these stories anymore. Usually, when I mention them or allude to them I’m the only one who’s even _heard_ of them. ---
**Author:** ![Stanislaus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stanislaus/32/3391_2.png) [@Stanislaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stanislaus)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-so-stories/180450/32 "2003-06-13T08:26:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by asterion \* > \*\*Was he trying to teach you chaos theory? \*\* No, more prosaically he was trying to impress on me the idea that when small and powerless individuals stamp their foot, only the whims of their superiors make their wishes come true and that in fact, foot-stampers don’t have the power they think they do. I can’t even begin to imagine why he thought I needed that lesson as by the age of 5 it had already become perfectly apparent. Now, had he read it to my sister, family life might have been very different. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-so-stories/180450.md?page=1)