Benjamin Bear and Emily Rabbit in Time Travels

An Homage to Philippe Coudray

            Once upon a time there was a bear and a rabbit. They lived in transatlantic Lon Ny land. Bear loved poetry and rabbit loved children’s books.

One day, bear and rabbit visited the Poetry Library in Lon, and rabbit was reading a children’s book journal when she stumbled upon the magical comic-book world of Philippe Coudray. Suddenly she realised that bear was Benjamin Bear of whom Coudray had written so much. Benjamin Bear (BB) is a paradoxical thinker who could find ingenious solutions to fuzzy problems; but sometimes he got a bit confused by reality. Not long after, bear named her Emily Rabbit (ER) after BB’s friend in the books.

Not long ago, Benjamin Bear and Emily Rabbit went to the Antiquarian Book Fair in the ny part of lon ny. There they feasted their eyes on fabulous books from the distant past.

The Botanica stall showed beautiful pictures of Californian nature from the 20s and 30s, reminding Emily Rabbit of mum and home. A map stall displayed a colorful 1650s pic of the Americas (wow – all the major American cities like Cartagena and Cuzco), the first geological map ever (of Southern England) and a unique metal pocket globe. Bear and rabbit adored the Dickens-enalia. Bear got interested in a first edition of Finnegans Wake, and the recovery of Greek texts after the fall of Byzantium by Venetian Italians. And Emily Rabbit found a few children’s book stores, even discovering Alison Uttley’s The Adventure of Hare.

When the fair was over, Benjamin Bear and Emily Rabbit got on the down-world train so they could escape intensity city (once known as mannahatta, its verticality and fast pace is anathema to rabbit) and find some of Benjamin Bear’s goodies in alternative city (once known as breukelen after the dutch).

Emily Rabbit said:

-Bear, I’m tired.

To which Benjamin Bear responded:

-I know, Rabbit. I wish we had Brigitte here so she could put us in a comic book called Benjamin Bear and Emily Rabbit in Time Travels. Then you’d take me to the Victorian period and we’d meet Dickens, and I’d show you their Gothic interests, and use that as a portal to take you to the Medieval period.

-Oh bear, that would be so good; but the weekend just isn’t long enough to go on such adventures. I wish there were just more time…’

-Rabbit, that’s it! You’re brilliant.

Bear reached into his pocket for the Infinity Device (Infinity! after the infinity of the internet, phone calling, etc) and began plugging away. After some time, Bear showed Emily his idea.

Emily Rabbit was amused. Bear had opened a calendar, but unlike any calendar you ever saw. Every week had eight days. Yes, eight days. That’s forty-five and a half weeks in a year. And three days of weekend.

-See Rabbit! Even though we’re Jewish, we don’t have to follow the abrahamic calendar. Was it the Incans who developed that amazing calendar based on the sun AND the moon?

-No Bear, it was the Maya.

-Oh right – a great Mexican invention! Delicious food too. The Milpa field and all that. Anyway they showed us the way. Since when do we have to adopt the seven-day calendar?

-Oh bear, if only. I think there should be one day for resting, one day for errands and one day for adventuring. But why do you want to change the week? I think it’s a myth that the five-day working week is good. I would do it so much better if I only had a four-day week.

-Emily Rabbit, that would make it hard for me when I become a lawyer. How am I meant to fit a 55 hour week into just 4 days? That’s too hard.

-Bear, I wish there were more hours in the day. You yourself said that the studies have shown we are built for 25 hour days. You can’t argue with that.

-Yes, rabbit. But then I wouldn’t just have to change the laws of this country, but the laws of this solar system!

-OK.

Bear, take me away to the land of the Working Time Directive…

Yes, Rabbit – that’s the only way our time will travel together.