Literally silly

The City of Palo Alto has declared today to be Amelia Bedelia Day—celebrate by being literal.

If you’ve not yet met Amelia Bedelia, you should. She’s the subject of a number of books by Peggy Parrish, and today marks the 50^th Anniversary of publication of the original volume. In it, when housekeeper Amelia Bedelia first arrives at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Rogers, her new employers, Mrs. Rogers gives her a list of tasks to perform while they’re out.

It turns out that Amelia Bedelia has what you might call a machine-language simplicity about her. She takes every instruction literally. Imagine, then, what the results might be if she’s told to “dust the furniture” and “dress the chicken”.

Yes, indeedy—that’s exactly what happens.

But—it turns out that no one makes lemon meringue pie like Amelia Bedelia. So—just as we have come to adapt to the quirks of our electronic devices, Mr. and Mrs. Rogers find ways to accommodate Amelia Bedelia.

I think everyone who works in software ought to read Amelia Bedelia. I introduced my historiography professor to her. Part of the course included a module on statistics. He was what passed for a computer nerd in the W&M history department in the early 90s and he’d never heard of her. My own copy is well worn because I never tire of its amazing silliness.

Yes, all right—I am easily amused.

But so should you be. And; you should mark the day appropriately. Take someone literally. Be silly. At the very least, have a slice of lemon meringue pie.