May 7

This is my son's birthday, but he's not my feature of the day; that's too much pressure. I just shared that fact to help explain why I picked children's author Michael Rosen for today's column. Since his first collection of poems were published in 1974, Rosen has been critically acclaimed for his works; in 2007, he was appointed the Children's Laureate in Great Britain. So far, he's published over 140 books
Honestly, we need more writers like Rosen. The nursery rhymes we inherited have lost their relevance; when's the last time any of you internet citizens had to fetch a pail of water? What's a tuffet, and what does whey taste like? When's the last time you heard "Old King Cole" and didn't think about bong hits? But enough perversions of childhood memories...
I found this recitation of Rosen's 1989 work "We're Going on a Bear Hunt," as performed by the author, and was so glad to post up anything besides another musician this week. And because I have two children under two, I'm perfectly excused to keep chanting this repeatedly. If you're at work, you might want to turn the volume down: