“Anyone who hates babies and dogs can’t be all bad.” If you think that W.C. Fields said that you’d be wrong. Actually, it was an unscripted comment by LEO ROSTEN about Fields. Leo Rosten (1908-1997) was a wonderful man and fun to read. His book PEOPLE I HAVE LOVED, KNOWN, OR ADMIRED (1970) is one I was fortunate to discover in a used book store. My initial encounter with Rosten was back in 1962 when I stumbled upon this quote from one of his brief articles:

“I cannot believe that the purpose of life is to be happy. I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be compassionate. It is, above all, to matter, to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you have lived at all.”

That concept penetrated my then fragile, groping mind (I was a college sophomore at the time). My reaction to it was to write, and keep writing. Rosten once said:

“A writer writes not because he is educated but because he is driven by the need to communicate. Behind the need to communicate is the need to share. Behind the need to share is the need to be understood.”

It seems to me that, in our contemporary, cyberspaced-out world, Rosten’s observation could well apply to our community of bloggers.

Now, after all these decades under the bridge since ’62, I have renewed my admiration for this sensitive and observant soul. He is best known for The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N and The Joys of Yiddish , but I am glad that it was his entertaining book on various people that I discovered when I did. His subjects range from great men such as Churchill and Freud to unknown --but interesting – characters that happened to waltz flagrantly into his life.

Often in these pages I found myself laughing out loud, especially the story about Coby Clay, the soldier who refused to make his bed. Then I exasperated my ever-patient wife by insisting on reading to her “My Night at the Opera,” an hysterical report of an obstinate, unionized orchestra refusing to play to a packed house.

Rosten memorializes such well-known people as Groucho, Montaigne and Leonardo, not because they are noted for their singular-name recognition, but because they were great, contributing men.

So I heartily endorse and recommend to you Rosten’s book. In closing, here’s a taste of some more Rosten gems:

“Extremists think ‘communication’ means agreeing with them.”

“First-rate people hire first-rate people; second-rate people hire third-rate people.”

“Some things are so unexpected that no one is prepared for them.”

“Truth is stranger than fiction; fiction has to make sense.”