Every once in a while the subject of selling Winnie the Pooh Collector Plates from a company called Bradford comes up for discussion on the alt.fan.pooh newsgroup. This has a tendence to confuse the Hundred Acre Wood citizenry, as shown in a short response to the following newsgroup post: "I have plates [Bradford Collector Pooh Plates] 1-8 for sale. ... I will sell individually!"
"That explains a lot, Piglet. I thought I just misplaced those plates." Pooh and Piglet were cleaning Pooh's kitchen and Pooh had just remarked that he couldn't find a set of plates that one of Rabbit's relations -- Bradford -- had given him as a present for his birthday last year.
"You shouldn't have to pay to get them back. Maybe this person will return them if you ask him nicely." Piglet was a practical sort of pig, but occasionally unrealistic in his trust of other people. Being a Very Small Animal, though, he has learned to be more cautious than others in the Hundred Acre Woods. "But maybe this person is a Woozle or a Heffalump or a Jagular, in which case you should just let him have the plates and use the set I gave you last Christmas, Pooh."
"I wonder if he would trade some Cheese for the plates. I have some extra Cheese that was used to seal in a special jar of Hunny, and I have no special use for it, being a bear who likes Hunny and doesn't particularly like Cheese." Pooh sat down to write a letter to the person trying to sell the eight plates. "Do you know how to reach this person, Piglet?"
"No I don't, Pooh. I think you need to jump into a net first, and hope he finds you. It sounds awfully frightful to me." Piglet answered.
I'd appreciate any comments, both positive and negative (but preferably constructive if they're negative) about this story or my writing style. I can be reached at Wstoler@aol.com.