The Phantom Tollbooth World Premiere

Should I go?

November 16-Dec 16 at the Kennedy Center's Family Theater.

Guess what else? Norton Juster will be autographing copies of his book after the November 17th matinee performance. I might go, just for that.

Oh, no...I can't. I checked and that performance is sold out. Do you think if I stood outside the door with my thirty-year-old beloved copy they might let me in?

Maybe if I recited some of my favorite parts...

"What an ordinary little boy," commented the king. "Why, my cabinet members can do all sorts of things. The duke here can make mountains out of molehills. The minister splits hairs. The count makes hay while the sun shines. The earl leaves no stone unturned. And the undersecretary," he finished ominously, "hangs by a thread. Can't you do anything at all?"

"I know one thing for certain; it's much harder to tell whether you are lost than whether you were lost, for, on many occasions, where you're going is exactly where you are. On the other hand, you often find that where you've been is not at all where you should have gone, and, since it's much more difficult to find your way back from someplace you've never left, I suggest you go there immediately and then decide."

"Here in Digitopolis, we have our meals when we're full and eat until we're hungry. That way, when you don't have anything at all, you have more than enough. It's a very economical system."

"I knew you'd like it," laughed the letter man, popping two G's and an R into his mouth and letting the juice drip down his chin. "A's are one of our most popular letters. All of them aren't that good," he confided in a low voice. "Take the Z, for instance---very dry and sawdusty. And the X? Why, it tastes like a trunkful of stale air. That's why people hardly ever use them..."