I Wish I’d Said That.

Dr. Boli’s Occasional Journal of Quotations.



Little Red Riding-Hood and the Wolf.

Little Red Riding Hood

Then there was the wolf and Little Red Riding-Hood. The general impression seems to be that the child’s grandmother was a saintly old lady and that the wolf was a beast. Let us dismiss this sentimental conception and consider the facts squarely. Before meeting the wolf Red Riding-Hood was the usual empty-headed flapper. She knew nothing of the world. So flagrant was her innocence that it constituted a positive menace to the community. The wolf changed all that. It gave Red Riding-Hood a good scare and opened her eyes. After that encounter nobody ever fooled Red Riding-Hood much. She positively abandoned her practice of wandering around into cottages on the assumption that if there was anybody in bed it must be her grandmother.

——Heywood Broun, “Glass Slippers by the Gross.”