O frabjous day, as Lewis Carroll would say. Devin McDonald and
his longtime sweetie, Jenny Stevenson, are celebrating the third anniversary of
their buying Mr. Mopps toy store in Berkeley from its founder and longtime
owner, Eugene Yamashita, by opening a children's book store tomorrow, right next
door on the former site of Grove Antiques.
"It's something we've wanted
to do ever since we bought the store," says Jenny. "The biggest
complaint we've been getting from customers who were big fans of the old store
is that they missed the old book collection."
The bookstore will feature all the
classics – Babar, the Ramona series, Curious George, The Learning Tree,
Barrington Bears, Thomas the Tank Engine, etc. – and also a lot of cool new
titles, as well as Devin's favorite book from his own childhood, "Harold
and the Purple Crayon."
"It's an amazing story about a
kid who draws his own adventure with a purple crayon and steps right into it,
drawing it as he goes along," he says.
Only one question: What to name the
store? One little boy suggested "Mrs. Broom's."
"We probably won't be doing
that," says Jenny. "But we do love it."
* * *
Meanwhile, at Children's Fairyland
in Oakland, the Magic Lamp toy store is stocking some new goodies just in time
for the park's Jack O'Lantern Jamboree on October 26 and 27, including a brand
new Fairyland activity/coloring book and handmade pewter Magic Keys to activate
the talking Storybook Boxes that dot the park.
But the big news is that Fairyland
honored cartoonist Morrie Turner, creator of "Wee Pals," America's first
racially integrated comic strip, on September 21 with a gold Magic Key, a panel
discussion, and a Q & A session with an adoring audience of
children and their parents who braved the rain to show their love.
One little girl asked him how to find success
as an artist.
"Keep your
pen wet," he advised. "And draw, draw, draw!"
* * *
Finally, congrats to Wavy Gravy,
the self-described "activist clown and former frozen dessert" (a
reference to Ben & Jerry's naming a flavor after him), who was awarded the
Berkeley Community Fund's prestigious Benjamin Ide Wheeler Medal on October 10.
Wavy, who founded Camp Winnarainbow
in 1975 and co-founded the Seva Foundation in three years later to fight
preventable and curable blindness in Asia and Africa ("Three million eye
surgeries and we're still truckin'!"), was awarded the medal for distinguished
community service.
Most of us first became aware of
him as the MC at Woodstock, but his career goes back much farther, all the way
to the early '60s, when he roomed with an unknown folksinger named Bob Dylan in
Greenwich Village and co-starred with Tiny Tim in a musical review at a dubious
venue called The Fat Black Pussycat. (His manager at the time was Lenny Bruce.)
"We got a front page in the
Village Voice and a rave review in the New York Times," he recalls.
"The next day, the sheriff came and padlocked the joint for back
taxes."
Originally named Hugh Romney, he
was dubbed Wavy Gravy by none other than B.B. King. And Wavy Gravy he has
remained ever since, except in the pages of the New York Times, which persists
in calling him "Mr. Gravy."
Posts
