Literary Birthday – 25 February – Peg Bracken

Peg Bracken was born 25 February 1918, and died 20 October 2007.

Six Quotes

1. The subject of men and women is absolutely fraught with sex, which is as it should be.
2. Every idea is my last. I feel sure of it. So, I try to do the best with each as it comes and that’s where my responsibility ends. But I just don’t wait for ideas. I look for them. Constantly. And if I don’t use the ideas that I find, they’re going to quit showing up.
3. When people say it’s a funny thing about them, you will probably be able to control your hysterics. They are only getting ready to announce the shattering fact that they don’t like something. And it’s not going to be something that’s really quite awful, like suttee or apartheid; it’s going to be something small.
4. Some people collect paperweights, or pre-Columbian figures, or old masters, or young mistresses, or tombstone rubbings, or five-minute recipes, or any of a thousand other things including bruises, most of them satisfying, depending on the genes and the bank account and where the heart lies. My own collection is sunrises; and I find that they have their advantages. Sunrises are usually handsome, they can’t possibly be dusted, and they take only a little room, so long as it has a window to see them from. Moreover, I can’t give way to the urge to show off my collection to my friends. I can only talk about it, and they needn’t listen.
5. Facts must be faced. Vegetables simply don’t taste as good as most other things do.
6. It isn’t surprising that many children consider their parents to be a little dim, and that they sometimes try to update them. The fact that they don’t usually try too hard is just as well; a thoroughly updated parent is an unappetising sight.

Peg Bracken was an American author of humorous books on cooking, travel, etiquette, and housekeeping. She is the author of The I Hate to Cook Book.

by Amanda Patterson

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