Come Along Catch a Heffalump

If you've watched any television at all over the past several weeks, you've seen Apple's ad for the iPhone XR. It features a bouncy song and a flood of people doing parkour while wearing colorful jumpsuits. Here's an extended version:



I could swear that the first line of the song is 'Come along catch a heffalump'. Heffalumps, if you don't know, are imaginary elephanty creatures from Winnie the Pooh, objects of fear and anxiety for the denizens of the Hundred Acre Wood. Y'all know how I feel about Pooh.

So I went looking for the song. It's from the debut album by a British artist named Cosmo Sheldrake, a multi-instrumental musical talent. Here he is playing it live in studio:



I'll be damned. The first line really does feature a heffalump drop. Sheldrake also works in a couple of Jabberwocky references in the second stanza. Have a little fun today, Gheorghies.

Gheorghestarter II: Deep in the Hundred Acre Wood

I don't have to tell you that we failed miserably in our first attempt to raise funds to purchase something that would benefit our entire community. Adam Jones bought Cal Ripken's estate, outbidding us by nearly $9 million. We tried. (Note: we didn't.)

In dipshittery, as in life, there are second chances. Opportunities for redemption.

On July 10, in London, the venerable Sotheby's auction house offers a original artwork that has a special place in my heart, and if you're a red-blooded human of Western descent, yours, as well.

In 1926, E.H. Shepard sketched the original map of the Hundred Acre Wood, home to A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh and his friends. Pooh was my main homie for a good part of my young childhood, both in stuffed form and on the page. One of my favorite memories of being a parent is reading Milne's stories to my girls. I love Pooh more than any other fictional character, with the possible exception of Teejay.

So I think it'd be great if we can chip in the $200,000 Sotheby's estimates will take to win the auction. We can display the sketch at G:TBHQ. Which, as I understand it, is my living room. You're all, obviously, welcome to visit it any time you'd like.

'There's Pooh Everywhere'

We like Neil Gaiman, and we like Winnie the Pooh. And we're tired of waiting for the next day of Gheorghemas. It'll get worse before it gets better.

(h/t: @twoeightnine)