The Dog That Bit People

Having spent the week engaged in selfish pursuits, I wanted to do one good deed before midnight–less than half an hour from now.

I’ve chosen to share a story: Keith Olbermann reading James Thurber’s “The Dog That Bit People.”

I met Thurber in fifth grade, when all students, K-12, were herded into

the auditorium to hear high school students practice for an upcoming Interscholastic League prose reading competition. Cullen Myers Dauchy read “The Night the Ghost Got In.”

By the end of the first page, I was in love.

Five years later, I had the pleasure of preparing Thurber’s “The Dog That Bit People” for the same competition. Although I never read it in contest–it fell under category C, and for three years in a row, the contest manager drew A or B–I loved the story of Muggs, who sank his teeth into everyone except Mrs. Thurber–and he went for her once–and in old age, walked through the house muttering like Hamlet following his father’s ghost.

I can’t share Thurber’s drawing of Muggs, so I’ve posted a photo from Wikipedia. This dog looks sweet, not grumpy, and Muggs was “a big, burly, choleric dog,” so for the full effect, you’ll have to imagine him with wearing a frown.

Muggs lived in the house on Jefferson Avenue, also pictured here.

Oops. I’ve missed the deadline.

But happy listening anyway.

The Dog That Bit People, Part 1

The Dog That Bit People, Part 2

[Note: Read the following article at your own peril and with several grains of salt. ~ A Friend]

Related Articles

• Thurber on “Who and Whom” (languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu)