This is Mike Strong, in Hays, for HPPR. The book is “Running With Sherman” by Christopher McDougall.
Sherman is a delight from page one, or page 40 or page anything, anywhere you land, whether you read from start to end or in spurts or you skim. If you love animals at all, Christopher McDougall’s always slightly bemused prose will endear you to the smart, funny, cantankerous Sherman.
Sherman is a donkey, rescued from poor care, nearly at the point of death when we come into the story. We go along on the rescue, see Sherman in a hopeless state with badly outgrown hooves and mangled, matted fur from neglect.
Then, with the help of the McDougall’s and their friends, Sherman rises from near death into a runner, racing with her humans in a crazy fun human, donkey foot race. When they first get the donkey, McDougall decides the donkey needs a name. He had just seen a biographical movie about two songwriting brothers, Robert and Richard Sherman and decided the happy-go-lucky lyrics they were known for, might set a theme. He writes that the donkey, now dubbed Sherman, “didn’t need me making things worse by giving him a name with even the hint of a hex.”
I knew what he meant. Our dog Kali (k-a-l-I), was named after the blue, multii-armed, Hindu goddess of death, time and doomsday) and she lived up to her name. A mix of black lab and pure hound dog, Kali had a mischievous bent.
I’ve made bread since my last year in high school (65-66) working at the local bakery. We had “wheat bread” which I thought was sturdier and healthy. It was just a handful of whole wheat thrown into white sponge and mixed in, adding slight color, texture and taste. Today, I make only whole wheat breads.
My ezee-pee-zee method, For each cup of flour, 1/5th teaspoon of salt and ½ cup water. For a single loaf that means, 3 cups whole wheat flour, 1.5 cups water, ½ cup oil, 1 level teaspoon of baker’s yeast (or one packet), cinnamon and pepper to taste and give it to the bread machine. Four hours and five minutes later, glorious, fresh, warm whole wheat bread.
I remember pulling out the fresh loaf and setting it on the kitchen counter, on a rack, to cool while I left for a bit. A few minutes later I returned to get something out of the refrigerator when I realized something was off. The loaf of bread was not there.
“Nicole,” I asked, “did you move the bread?”
Nicole took one look over and said, “Did you check the back yard?”
There in the back yard, outside the kitchen door, was Kali, chewing that fresh loaf of bread. When we looked out, she looked back at us with a look that said, “uh huh, yeah, I did it. I know I’m guilty, but you didn’t see me.”
The rules Kali went by were, “if you leave anything, where I can reach it, it is mine. Chew time for me. Glasses, phones, who knows what and now, a full, freshly baked three-cup loaf of bread.”
Kali had a particularly endearing orneriness and a smart aleck attitude. But then Kali figured she was in charge.
Likewise for Sherman. MacDougall writes, “Anything I demanded from Sherman would never happen. Anything I offered had a chance. The more I tried to boss him around, the more he would resist. There was no way I was going to out-donkey a donkey, especially not a damaged one like Sherman.”
Using a second goat, named Chili, MacDougall and Mika get Sherman to walk past a location he had shied away from the day before, just by following Chili, past the spot.
Sherman, at first, was new to the world and spooked at the unfamiliar. But get him past something once, he will know it.
MacDougall quotes Atticus Finch in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.”
This is Mike Strong, in Hays, for HPPR Radio Readers Book Club.
REFERENCES
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman_Brothers
The Sherman Brothers
The Sherman Brothers were an American songwriting duo that specialized in musical films, made up of Robert B. Sherman (December 19, 1925 – March 6, 2012) and Richard M. Sherman (born June 12, 1928). Together they received various accolades including two Academy Awards and three Grammy Awards. They received nominations for an Laurence Olivier Award, a BAFTA Award, and five Golden Globe Awards. In 1976 they received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and the National Medal of the Arts in 2008. The Sherman Brothers wrote more motion-picture musical song scores than any other songwriting team in film history.
