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Homer Price is the central character in two children's books written and illustrated by Robert McCloskey, and title character of the first. Homer Price was published in 1943, and Centerburg Tales in 1951.
Homer lives in Centerburg, Ohio. He is a mild-mannered boy who enjoys fixing radios, and who somehow gets involved in a series of outrageous incidents, such as tending an inexplicably unstoppable doughnut-making machine in his uncle's diner, or caring for mystery plants that turn out to be a giant form of allergy-inducing ragweed. He does odd jobs like raking leaves, and sweeping up the diner or the nearby barber shop. Sometimes he is also hired by his uncle to tend to the labor-saving devices in his cafe and mix doughnut batter. His main job is helping out in his father's business, a motor court, where Homer also resides.
James Daugherty said of Homer Price, "It is America laughing at itself with a broad and genial humanity, without bitterness or sourness or sophistication." [1]
One of Homer Price's adventures, "The Case of the Cosmic Comic", parodies the Superman phenomenon, with Homer and his best friend Freddy attending the local personal appearance of Freddy's favorite superhero. Freddy is unable to understand that "The Super-Duper" is an ordinary actor in a costume, and expects him to be capable of super feats. Homer, however, quietly displays a more mature view of the hero.
Another adventure of Homer's is when an adult friend of his in Centerburg wins a contest for composing an advertising jingle for shaving lotion, but the prize money is stolen on the air in an armed robbery. By chance, the robbers are staying at the same motor court, and Homer sees it as his chance to stop them and claim a cash reward in order to build all sorts of radios and an (at the time) expensive television. Although Homer is eager to profit from the reward, he is also genuinely interested in bringing the robbers to justice, as they stole from a man he knew.
Flim-flam merchants and larger-than-life paraphernalia appear in several stories. One features a snake-oil salesman—Professor Atmos P. H. Ear—offloading an odorless, colorless, tasteless chemical called "Ever-So-Much-More-So" that when sprinkled on things, supposedly enhances everything, making a soft bed softer, a fast car faster, and so on.
Many of the male residents of Centerburg share first names with classical figures; "Grandpa Hercules", "Uncle Ulysses", "Uncle Telemachus", and Homer himself.
Miss Terwilliger is a comely and likeable spinster who loves to knit. Both the sheriff and Uncle "Telly" Telemachus want to marry Miss Terwilliger, but she is unable to decide which of them she likes better. Eventually the two suitors hold a contest to see who has the largest ball of string, with the winner getting to marry Miss Terwilliger. She ends up beating them both by secretly unwinding the string in her skirt when her formal collection of string runs out, but still marries Uncle Telly, who came in second. The sheriff, however, accepts his loss with dignity, as he was best man at their wedding and they will invite him to dinner every Thursday night.
African-American characters appear in the books, portrayed benignly as ordinary citizens. During a centennial celebration of Centerburg, a chorus from the African Baptist Church provides vocal harmony for the show. A black boy wins $100 for finding a lost bracelet inside a doughnut, although he announces his find as "I gawt it!" and the illustration of this shows him wearing markedly tattered clothes.
1. "The Case of the Sensational Scent"
The first thing Homer hears upon assembling his new homemade radio is news of a robbery. He and his pet skunk meet the robbers the next day, and the encounter leads to their identification.
2. "The Case of the Cosmic Comic"
Homer and Freddy meet their comic book hero, the Super-Duper (a pastiche of Superman), when he appears in person at the Centerburg movie theater, but unintentionally learn an uncomfortable truth about him.
3. "The Doughnuts"
Uncle Ulysses installs a new doughnut maker at his lunchroom in downtown Centerburg. While his uncle is out and most of the town is at the movies, Homer is waiting on a hobo who works as a "sandwich man" in advertising and a wealthy woman who shows Homer how to make delicious doughnuts using an old family recipe of hers. However, Homer comments on the tremendous amount of batter, which makes the machine provide more than enough for everyone in town.
4. "Mystery Yarn"
Homer's Uncle Telly and the local sheriff are rivals for two things: the hand of a local widow, and the title of World's Greatest String Saver. The contest becomes a County Fair event, heightened when the widow herself enters with a ball of scrap yarn.
5. "Nothing New under the Sun (Hardly)"
A stranger with the proverbial "better mousetrap" arrives in Centerburg, offering his services to the town.
6. "Wheels of Progress"
Centerburg holds its yearly pageant, as the locals celebrate both their history and a new, modern subdivision of prefabricated houses. Each are threatened when a promised set of street signs are not posted on time, leaving the residents lost on their way home.
1. "Grandpa Hercules"
Homer's Grandpa Herc tells stories of the frontier, such as "The Hide-a-Ride", "Sparrow Courthouse" and "The Gravity-Bitties".
2. "Experiment 13"
Local ne'er-do-well Dulcy Dooner inherits a greenhouse from his late uncle, a famous botanist, and literally plants the seeds of trouble, when Dulcy discovers an unfinished experiment.
3. "Ever-So-Much-More-So"
A traveling salesman peddles cans of an invisible product which he guarantees will enhance one's life experiences.
4. "Pie and Punch and You-Know-Whats"
A new record on the jukebox in Uncle Ulysses's lunchroom has a song whose catchiness is such that nobody who hears it is able to stop singing.
The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the Iliad, the poem is divided into 24 books. It follows the Greek hero Odysseus, king of Ithaca, and his journey home after the Trojan War. After the war, which lasted ten years, his journey from Troy to Ithaca, via Africa and southern Europe, lasted for ten additional years during which time he encountered many perils and all of his crewmates were killed. In his absence, Odysseus was assumed dead, and his wife Penelope and son Telemachus had to contend with a group of unruly suitors who were competing for Penelope's hand in marriage.
In Greek and Roman mythology, Odysseus, also known by the Latin variant Ulysses, is a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in that same epic cycle.
Penelope is a character in Homer's Odyssey. She was the queen of Ithaca and was the daughter of Spartan king Icarius and Asterodia. Penelope is known for her fidelity to her husband Odysseus, despite the attention of more than a hundred suitors during his absence. In one source, Penelope's original name was Arnacia or Arnaea.
Telemachus, in Greek mythology, is the son of Odysseus and Penelope, who is a central character in Homer's Odyssey. When Telemachus reached manhood, he visited Pylos and Sparta in search of his wandering father. On his return to Ithaca, he found that Odysseus had reached home before him. Then father and son slew the suitors who had gathered around Penelope. According to later tradition, Telemachus married Circe after Odysseus's death.
François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon, PSS, more commonly known as François Fénelon, was a French Catholic archbishop, theologian, poet and writer. Today, he is remembered mostly as the author of The Adventures of Telemachus, first published in 1699. He was a member of the Sulpician Fathers.
John Robert McCloskey was an American writer and illustrator of children's books. He both wrote and illustrated eight picture books, and won two Caldecott Medals from the American Library Association for the year's best-illustrated picture book. Four of the eight books were set in Maine: Blueberries for Sal, One Morning in Maine, Time of Wonder, and Burt Dow, Deep-water Man. His best-known work is Make Way For Ducklings, set in Boston. In longer works, he both wrote and illustrated Homer Price and he illustrated Keith Robertson's Henry Reed series.
"Ulysses" is a poem in blank verse by the Victorian poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892), written in 1833 and published in 1842 in his well-received second volume of poetry. An oft-quoted poem, it is a popular example of the dramatic monologue. Facing old age, mythical hero Ulysses describes his discontent and restlessness upon returning to his kingdom, Ithaca, after his far-ranging travels. Despite his reunion with his wife Penelope and his son Telemachus, Ulysses yearns to explore again.
Charles Ellsworth Grapewin was an American vaudeville and circus performer, a writer, and a stage and film actor. He worked in over 100 motion pictures during the silent and sound eras, most notably portraying Uncle Henry in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's The Wizard of Oz (1939), "Grandpa" William James Joad in The Grapes of Wrath (1940), Jeeter Lester in Tobacco Road (1941), Uncle Salters in Captains Courageous (1937), Gramp Maple in The Petrified Forest (1936), Wang's Father in The Good Earth (1937), and California Joe in They Died With Their Boots On (1941).
David Akeman better known as Stringbean, was an American singer-songwriter, musician, comedian, and semiprofessional baseball player best known for his role as a main cast member on the hit television show Hee Haw and as a member of the Grand Ole Opry. Akeman was well known for his "old-fashioned" banjo-picking style, careful mix of comedy and music, and his memorable stage wardrobe. Akeman and his wife were shot and murdered by burglars in their rural Tennessee home near Ridgetop in 1973.
The Flintstone Kids is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera. It is an alternative incarnation of the studio's original animated series The Flintstones. The series depicts juvenile versions of the main characters from the original show. It aired from September 13, 1986, to November 14, 1987, on ABC. Unlike the previous shows, this was the first Flintstones series not to have a laugh track.
The Odyssey is a 1997 American mythology–adventure television miniseries based on the ancient Greek epic poem by Homer, the Odyssey. Directed by Andrei Konchalovsky, the miniseries aired in two parts beginning on May 18, 1997, on NBC. It was filmed in Malta, Turkey, parts of England and many other places around the Mediterranean, where the story takes place. The cast includes Armand Assante, Greta Scacchi, Irene Papas, Isabella Rossellini, Bernadette Peters, Eric Roberts, Geraldine Chaplin, Jeroen Krabbé, Christopher Lee and Vanessa Williams.
"I'm My Own Grandpa" is a novelty song written by Dwight Latham and Moe Jaffe, performed by Lonzo and Oscar in 1947, about a man who, through an unlikely combination of marriages, becomes stepfather to his own stepmother—by dropping the "step-" modifiers, he becomes his own grandfather.
Jubilee (1966) is a historical novel written by Margaret Walker, which focuses on the story of a biracial slave during the American Civil War. It is set in Georgia and later in various parts of Alabama in the mid-19th century before, during, and after the Civil War.
Ulysses is a 1954 fantasy-adventure film based on Homer's epic poem Odyssey. The film was directed by Mario Camerini, who co-wrote the screenplay with writer Franco Brusati. The original choice for director was Georg Wilhelm Pabst but he quit at the last minute. The film's cinematographer Mario Bava co-directed the cyclops Polyphemus segment (uncredited).
George Walter Terwilliger was an American film director, screenwriter, and journalist. He worked in both the silent and sound eras, directing at least 76 productions between 1912 and 1936. He also wrote scores of screenplays for films released between 1910 and 1939. In 1912 alone, he was contracted by Lubin film studio to write one story a week for the company.
The Odyssey is an eight-episode European TV miniseries broadcast on RAI in 1968 and based on Homer's Odyssey. An Italian, Yugoslavian, German and French coproduction, it was directed by Franco Rossi, assisted by Piero Schivazappa and Mario Bava; the cast includes Bekim Fehmiu as Odysseus and Irene Papas as Penelope, Samson Burke as the Cyclops, as well as Barbara Bach as Nausicaa, and Gérard Herter. Several critics consider the series to be a masterful representation of the ancient world.
Freddy the Pilot (1952) is the 19th book in the humorous children's Freddy the Pig series written by Walter R. Brooks and illustrated by Kurt Wiese. When an airplane from a secret airstrip terrorizes the performances of his friend Mr. Boomschmidt's circus, Freddy learns to fly, then gets a plane to track the criminals and stop their activities.
Freddy Plays Football (1949) is the 16th book in the humorous children's series Freddy the Pig written by American author Walter R. Brooks, and illustrated by Kurt Wiese. In it, Freddy and the Bean animals try to convince the Beans that Mrs. Bean’s long lost brother is a fake. Freddy lands in jail for stealing the money the fake is attempting to take. In the meanwhile Centerboro is taken with football fever on account of Freddy's playing.
Uncle Grandpa is an American animated television series created by Peter Browngardt for Cartoon Network that ran from September 2, 2013, to June 30, 2017. It is based on Browngardt's animated short of the same name from The Cartoonstitute. Uncle Grandpa is also a spin-off of Secret Mountain Fort Awesome, which was in turn a spin-off of The Cartoonstitute short. It was produced by Cartoon Network Studios.