"Do You Like Kipling?"

...the young man asked; to which the young woman replied: "Why, I don't know you naughty boy, I've never Kipled."

Heh, an ancient joke, but it gets me everytime. Anyway, I like Kipling, Rudyard that is. Too bad he's probably not taught in schools anymore. I suppose a poem like 'The Grave of the Hundred Head' is entirely too savage for a generation of children not allowed to play dodgeball, and 'The White Man's Burden' is definitely not the thing these days.

But still - how can anyone, especially a child, read this....

This is the story of the great war that Rikki-tikki-tavi fought single-handed, through the bathrooms of the big bungalow in Segowlee cantonment. Darzee, the tailor-bird, helped him, and Chuchundra, the musk-rat, who never comes out into the middle of the floor, but always creeps round by the wall, gave him advice; but Rikki-tikki did the real fighting.

...and not want to know what happens next?

Anyone else remember the animated telling of Rikki Tikki Tavi that used to air once a year or so on TV? Looking back, I think that cartoon single-handedly brought up my intense dislike of snakes.