i've been thinking lately about elliott smith and his ferdinand the bull tattoo. i love the story of that sweet, hedonistic bull. and the illustrations are great. i had a funny conversation with a friend via facebook recently when i had posted about finding three four-leaf clovers but my cat, derrida, ate one of them. it went back and forth a bit, with me deciding i wanted to write a children's book about jacques derrida eating lucky clovers with my cat playing his namesake. i said to my friend, 'like ferdinand the bull meets deconstruction.' and he wrote back, 'deconstruction. bull. you said it, not me.' i loved that.