putterings 121 < 122 > 123 index
anything that is frankly trivial
In a word, it is a book which we can read without the slightest fear of being cheated or insinuatingly weaned from our hale and hearty opinions. This is in itself a recommendation. Anything that is frankly trivial is to be welcomed with open arms in these days of deadly seriousness...
The book must be judged according to its own standards. To enjoy it you must have a taste for puttering, puttering among old histories and new dictionaries, puttering on the seashore and getting your feet wet, puttering in the house and evolving some convenient device for getting the water out of the cellar or the woodpeckers off the roof.
—
review of Cape Coddities by Dennis and Marion Chatham, by A. L. M., ’23, in The Harvard Advocate 106:10 (June 22, 1920) : 366
the reviewed book (with illustrations by Harold Cue), NYPL copy (at Hathitrust)