[Alumni-chat] Peg Bracken, Antioch '40, author of best seller I HATE TO COOK BOOK writes about old age as a comedy experience!

[YAZZ ALLEN]

Jan. 8, 08
   
  Hi from Yazz (David) Allen '66 (Email me at: YazzAllen at Yahoo.Com):
   
  Peg Bracken, Antioch College, Ohio '40 is about 90 years old these days if she's still with us (I hope she is....I was in email contact with her about 5 years ago, and she described a relatively recent stop-by visit to Antioch in Ohio trip she made and her reactions to how things had changed since her pre-WWII times as a teen at Antoch).   When she and I were in contact, she lived in Oregon with her husband.
   
  As many Antiochians know, Peg Bracken '40 was (and is) the author of one of the best selling humor books of the 20th century titled THE I HATE TO COOK BOOK,   written and widely discussed in the 1960's.
   
  Peg didn't choose to "go gentle into that good night" (see Dylan Thomas' poem about that he wrote to his father urging his Dad NOT to "go gentle into that good night").
   
  She wrote a terrific humor book about old age as a comedy experience, and I reviewed it for Amazon.Com.
   
  I mentioned Peg's status as an Antiochian of fame.  Those who engage in public writing like me about people part of Antioch can use the occasion as an excuse to boost and publicize and enthuse about Antioch College........it's a good way to get the old school back on it's feet and "going" again........a job which always needs doing and has since 1852, it seems!
   
  Here's my Peg Brack old age book review from Amazon.Com, FYI (see all 34 Amazon.Com book reviews I wrote by inputting DAVID ROGER ALLEN as a "reviewer" search term on the Amazon.Com website or the Google.Com site):
   
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                  On Getting Old for the First Time     by Peg Bracken
Edition: Hardcover    Availability: Currently unavailable                
             51 of 52 people found the following review helpful:
 
   
  LIKE FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT, PEG BRACKEN STILL ACHIEVES AT 80+!, February 16, 2001

   
  Peg Bracken (Mrs. John Ohman of Portland, Oregon), renowned author of THE I HATE TO COOK BOOK and ten other equally worthwhile published works, is now past age 80, and like Frank Lloyd Wright, still working full time at what she does best, satiric essay writing with a homespun yet bitingly witty edge. 
   
   
  Ms. Bracken is a 1940 graduate of Ohio's famous Antioch College, one of the world's most important and individualistic higher education centers. Peg Bracken is certainly a daughter of Antioch, individualistic, outspoken, charming, and intelligent in ways disarming, yet very easy to relate to and admire. 
   
   
  The subject of her latest book is Old Age, and she writes about her subject in her well known humorous way in almost a journalistic style. Her writing about her personal experiences as an "Older Person" is what the American Association For Retired Persons magazine should offer, but, sadly, never does. It is relevant, poignant, and filled with important observations skillfully cradled in diplomatic and humane style, always self-deprecating and fraught with wit and humor created by a person obviously born with a gift in those areas. 
   
   
  Peg Bracken really covers her subject in almost all areas one could wish and does so in only 125 pages, happily presented in readable, larger than average typeface, ideal for comfortable reading and reflecting. I read the first chapter of ON GETTING OLD FOR THE FIRST TIME in a Cockeysville, Maryland (suburban Baltimore) public library, and found myself laughing out loud so noisily that the usually tolerant librarians on duty were forced to make several visits to my reading location, and ask me to quiet down. 
   
   
  I really did try to accommodate them, but Peg Bracken's wit is so astonishing and infectious, I finally realized that, for me, her book would only be readable in a non-public location. It's too funny for public library located consumption. 
   
   
  This said, it should be noted her subject matter is very serious, and the implied conclusions raised by her intelligent writing constitute the best food for thought I've ever read by any author, ancient or modern, on the subject of Old Age. 
   
   
  Get this book and read it. Buy it. Keep it at home, and re-read it again and again over the years. Encourage your local public library system, nursing homes, retirement communities, and booksellers to stock multiple copies at all times, and to publicize it continuously. 
   
   
   
  This modest little book is a classic, and though the self-effacing Ms. Bracken would likely be the first to deny it, a true work of genious. In today's world, we need all the genious and wisdom we can get, especially on the subject of Old Age.






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    Contact "Yazz" (David) Allen directly via email at YazzAllen at Yahoo.Com, mail to 644 Shrewsbury Commons Ave., #239, Shrewsbury PA USA 17361...phone (717) 235 - 1982!
   
  See my movie actor photos and recent credits at WWW.IMDb.Com (world's largest movie info database, owned by Amazon.Com)  IMDb RESUME.  Also WWW.SAG.Org "IActor, "WWW.CastingNetworks.Com.



       
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