Old Father William’s Well-Ordered Universe by Bill Richardson
Monday, November 3 2008
Innis Town Hall, 2 Sussex Ave.
7:30pm
Tickets $5. Limited seating.
For tickets call: (416) 640-5836 or visit the Refunds desk at 214 College St.
A humourous lecture.
In this topsy turvy world, look to Old Father William to reveal to you the extraordinary order of the universe. Old Father William has retreated to the smallest room in the house. There, in the full flush of solitude, he gathers the worldly strands and snippets that filter into his hermitage and does his addled best to weave them into something, anything, that will help him make sense of the dreadful universe that heaves and churns on the other side of the walls.
Keith Richards and George Bernard Shaw were both damaged when they fell from trees. Prince Philip, husband of the Queen of England, and John Holmes, the star of over 2,000 pornographic movies, were both born on the kitchen table: different tables in different kitchens, it’s true. But nonetheless: what does it mean? What famous composer was autopsied in a tool shed? What was the name of the woman who invented the dishwasher in a tool shed? When did Mr. Harley and Mr. Davidson invent their motorcycle in a tool shed and what do they have to do with Pamela Anderson, anyway? And what, what, what does it mean when you put it all together?
Whether you labour over these pages or whether you read them in quick and easy spurts, this is a book that will make you want to skip to the loo, my darling. Let the private sanctum of the bathroom become for you, as it has become for Old Father William, a place as much about making sense as making scents.
Bill Richardson is a well-known columnist, writer, humourist and former radio host for the CBC. His dozen books include The Bachelor Brothers Bed and Breakfast, which won the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour in 1994. He has also written successfully for young adults: his novel After Hamelin won the prestigious Silver Birch Award. He lives in Vancouver.
