Here's another popular one: Pooh expresses the desire to kill himself one day before you die so he doesn't have to live alone. I mean, WTF? No, this isn't in any book by Milne or movie by Disney. As far as I can tell, it comes from a publication called "Pooh's Little Instruction Book", which, while occasionally credited to Milne, was not written by Milne. Milne had nothing to do with it. The cover reads "Inspired by A. A. Milne". That's like me making a potato salad, and saying this salad was inspired by Nicki Minaj, therefore Nicki Minaj made my potato salad. The author of "Pooh's Little Instruction Book" is in fact Joan Powers, aphorist extraordinaire. I'm beginning to suspect that many of what I'm considering Pooh misquotes are aphorism by Joan Powers 'inspired' by Milne. Technically, Dutton Children's Books owns copyright to Pooh, so owns anything that comes out of his fictional pie-hole. Dutton employs Joan Powers to write aphorism in a book with pictures of Pooh in, so these become Pooh cannon. But I say: wrong, wrong, wrong! These aphorism are not part of any Pooh story (you know, one with characters and a plot); these are not things Pooh or his associates have said, so are not, in my book, legitimate Pooh quotes.
Postscript: 11/15/2014. Since writing this blog, I've found a section right at the end of Milne's "House on Pooh Corner" (1928) which is no doubt the origin of the quote above. Christopher Robin is leaving Pooh (presumably to grow up; not because he has a terminal illness), which they discuss, ending with:
"Pooh, promise you won't forget about me, ever. Not even when I'm a hundred."
Pooh thought for a little.
"How old shall I be then?"
"Ninety-nine."
Pooh nodded.
"I promise," he said.
Note: the conspicuous absence of anything about dying, because that would be a very depressing way to end the last page of a children's storybook. Also note the absence of the phrase 'a hundred minus one day' because neither Pooh nor Christopher Robin say shit like that.
Postscript: 11/15/2014. Since writing this blog, I've found a section right at the end of Milne's "House on Pooh Corner" (1928) which is no doubt the origin of the quote above. Christopher Robin is leaving Pooh (presumably to grow up; not because he has a terminal illness), which they discuss, ending with:
"Pooh, promise you won't forget about me, ever. Not even when I'm a hundred."
Pooh thought for a little.
"How old shall I be then?"
"Ninety-nine."
Pooh nodded.
"I promise," he said.
Note: the conspicuous absence of anything about dying, because that would be a very depressing way to end the last page of a children's storybook. Also note the absence of the phrase 'a hundred minus one day' because neither Pooh nor Christopher Robin say shit like that.