Thursday 30 August 2012

Chocolate slugshake, anyone?

Sick of slugs?  Then I’m sorry, but you’ve come to the wrong place.  Sun Dried Sparrows is full of 'em.  Here are some more.


I got this great little paperback when I was in my twenties, on a trip to London, from one of those bookshops where nothing seemed to be in any order, just jumbled up for you to rummage through, piled up on tables and underneath them too so you had to get on your hands and knees and have a good old grope around.  So there I was on all fours when, quite fittingly perhaps, I found this.  It's one of the few books I've kept for all that time.


I’ve gathered it’s a bit of a classic - although out of print now, I think.
  
Those who know me will know that I can get a little tired of doing ‘cute’.  It helps to pay the bills but my darker inner self longs to fill pages with the weird, the wild and the ugly: bats, rats, mammoths, boars and manatees, perhaps.   I can't find anyone who'll take that risk with me...

Slugs would be just fine, wouldn't they? 


 But I couldn’t compete with these.


And just so you know…

If you do treat your slugs badly,
- like this, perhaps...


 or this…


 This is what happens to you.




Think on.


('Slugs' was written by David Greenberg and illustrated by Victoria Chessman.  Published by Pepper Press, 1983)

13 comments:

  1. Brilliant! I love it -especially the suggestion of 'Swinger Slugs' in Pic 4.

    Hate slugs, mind.

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  2. Uh oh...I tossed one out lastnght into the rain. I don't wanna be chopped into pancakes...at least not my face.

    I adore bookstores like that.

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  3. Good on the slugs. Nice book!

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  4. The Slug Pellet Amnesty starts here. As does the Campaign For More Weird Creatures In Children's Books, along with the Make Bookshops Messier Movement.

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  5. I'll never look at a slug in quite the same way again!

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    1. From a bit of a childhood phobia of them, after having once accidentally trod on one whilst barefoot, I've grown to love these much-maligned creatures.
      Perhaps it's just as well I never saw this book as a kid, though; fear of retribution after the treading incident could have fuelled some vivid nightmares...

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  6. I stepped out for a smoke this morning and counted 15 1/2 slugs...8 at the base of giant live oak and 7 on our back windows. Then there was one that didn't make it trying to cross the deck lastnight.

    And a toad for good measure.

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    Replies
    1. Hmm, sounds like they might be ganging up on you...after seeing their unfortunate friend had been halved.. I'd watch out if I were you.

      Oh the toad - another lovely 'ugly' creature!

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  7. My youngest left Doritos out for slugs to eat in the summer then wondered why they all exploded. I had to explain that slugs and salt don't mix well.... I hope they give him a free pass on that one due to general innocent intent, although they have been massing in the garden recently....

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    Replies
    1. 'If you feed a slug Doritos
      You'd best stay incognito'
      so the saying goes...I think.
      Such a sweet thought though, I'm sure they'll be forgiving...as long as you don't offer them a beer as well.

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  8. Did you you know that beer attracts slugs...put a hole in the ground and fill a container with beer...the bleeders love it, but unfortunately they drown if the beer is to deep...aparently if they survive they go home and beat their wifes....so please, low percent beer if possibe and avoid special brew

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    Replies
    1. Do you remember that famous Nationwide clip? - someone brought in their 'beer-loving snail' and after one sip it promptly died on air...

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  9. Oh! boy that would have got the animal lovers going....great TV...just as well it was not a Hamster.

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