Friday, March 12, 2010

Needed: A Wheedle

Greetings,

When we were little, Mom and Dad's Marriage Encounter friends from Seattle gave us a book that soon became a family favorite "The Wheedle on the Needle." I love the story of the Wheedle as he gets grumpy from the whistling and noise in his formerly quiet corner of the world. The story goes on to explain the Wheedle is the one who brought all the clouds and rain to Seattle to keep the people from whistling--Ah-ha! Later, the Wheedle is able to sleep and his red nose blinks as he snoozes on top of the Space Needle. This leads me to the topic of this post.

Milwaukee is foggy--AGAIN. For several days now, the city has been foggy, rainy, and gray. I didn't know it could rain and be foggy at the same time! As I was driving back to the house, I realized that I coudn't see the tops of some of the buildings or the water-tower; that is when I decided, we need a Wheedle in Milwaukee. We could ship a few in and settle them on the tall towers and nearby water-towers...snuggle them in and get those red noses ablinking.

I'm praying for a bit of sunshine for the city by the lake.

Blessings,

"Wheedle on the Needle (Serendipity Books, 1974), written by Stephen Cosgrove and illustrated by Robin James, was about a large, round, furry creature called the Wheedle who lived in the Northwest. Bothered by the whistling of workers first settling the city of Seattle, the creature was unable to sleep and became irritable, eventually moving to Mount Rainier to escape the noise. The Wheedle slept there peacefully for many years, his red nose blinking, until the region's growth brought people- and their whistling- to his doorstep once again. In an effort to silence the noise, the Wheedle gathered clouds in a large sack atop Mt. Rainier, returned to Seattle, climbed atop the Space Needle, and threw them into the sky to make it rain. With their lips wet from precipitation, the city's residents were unable to whistle, and the creature once again had some peace and quiet. Upset, the people sent the mayor to try and convince the Wheedle to stop the rain; when the creature explained his problem, the mayor had a giant pair of earmuffs constructed to drown out the disagreeable warbling. When they were presented to him, "The Wheedle placed them over his ears, and smiled for the first time in years." In appreciation, the Wheedle gathered up all the clouds, put them back in his bag, and fell fast asleep - and once again, his big red nose began to blink. The book ends with a short poem: There's a Wheedle/On the Needle/I know just what/You're thinking/But if you look up/Late at night/You'll see/His red nose blinking."~~Borrowed from Wikipedia.

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