Christopher Robin was sitting outside his door, putting on his Big Boots. As soon as he saw the Big Boots, Pooh knew that an Adventure was going to happen, and he brushed the honey off his nose with the back of his paw, and spruced himself up as well as he could, so as to look Ready for Anything.
 
“Good morning, Christopher Robin,” he called out.
 
“Hallo, Pooh Bear. I can’t get this boot on.”
 
“That’s bad,” said Pooh.
 
“Do you think you could very kindly lean against me, ‘cos I keep pulling so hard that I fall over backwards.”
 
Pooh sat down, dug his feet into the ground, and pushed hard against Christopher Robin’s back, and Christopher Robin pushed hard against his, and pulled and pulled at his boot until he had got it on.
 
“And that’s that,” said Pooh. “What do we do next?”
 
“We are all going on an Expedition,” said Christopher Robin, as he got up and brushed himself. “Thank you, Pooh.”
 
“Going on an Expotition?” said Pooh eagerly. “I don’t think I’ve ever been on one of those. Where are we going to on this Expotition?”
 
“Expedition, silly old Bear. It’s got an ‘x’ in it.”
 
“Oh!” said Pooh. “I know.” But he didn’t really.
 
“We’re going to discover the North Pole.”
 
“Oh!” said Pooh again. “What is the North Pole?” he asked.
 
“It’s just a thing you discover,” said Christopher Robin carelessly, not being quite sure himself.
 
“Oh! I see,” said Pooh. “Are bears any good at discovering it?”
 
“Of course they are.”—A. A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh, “In Which Christopher Robin Leads an Expotition to the North Pole”

Winnie-the-Pooh, a collection of 10 short stories by A. A. Milne about a young boy, Christopher Robin, and his teddy bear friend, Winnie-the-Pooh (birth name: Edward Pooh), was published by Methuen & Co. in London 90 years ago today.
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Paul Simon is 75 today.

His most recent album, Stranger to Stranger, his thirteenth solo album, was released in June to excellent reviews and he has spent 2016 touring on its behalf (he is in Europe at present). It is excellent and has moments of rhythmic experimentation: he uses instruments built by the music theorist and general eccentric Harry Partch on several tracks.

He remains a figure of some controversy in the music business, usually the controversies are over matters concerning the business part of the phrase music business. As a music fan though he is on my personal Mount Rushmore of songwriters.
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For King John, the last two years of his reign (and life) must have felt like a long losing streak: he failed in his attempt to retake Normandy by force, in part because his own barons refused to serve in his military; later, he was made to sign the Magna Carta with many of those same barons, and even though the pope took John’s side and declared the Magna Carta null and void, the barons and he still fell into war against each other.

And then came October 12, 1216. John spent much of his reign traveling; even when he was home in England he traveled from friendly manor house to the next friendly house, allowing his allies to play host to the king, and he did not travel light: his entourage carried everything that he owned personally and in the name of the crown everywhere it went. John collected jewels and gold and silver, and he inherited the Crown Jewels of Germany from his grandmother. His traveling court included several horse-drawn carts full of jewels and precious metals.
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