Incurious George

This fall, PBS is launching its new animated series based on the popular children’s book "Curious George." Plans are reportedly already in the works to create a followup series based on the less well known children’s book "Incurious George" reproduced below:

This is George.
He lived in Texas.
He was a good little part time governor
but always very incurious.

One day George saw a man.
He had on a small red hunter’s hat.
The man saw George, too.
"What a nice political figurehead," the man thought.
"I would like to take him home with me."

The man laid out his grand presidential plan.
George, as usual, was not curious.
He didn’t much care for plans.
But he was fascinated with the shiny new presidency.

The plan had been in the man’s head for years.
George thought it would be nice
if he could have the shiny new presidency.
So he picked up the plan and tried it on.

The plan dazzled George so much that he couldn’t see.
The man talked to him quickly and distracted him with words.
George was caught.

The man with the red hunter’s hat put George into a blue suit
and a handler took them across the country to a big convention.
George was confused but he was still very incurious.

At the big convention, things began to happen.
The man took off his hat.
George stood on the podium and the man said,
"George, I am going to take you to a big white house in Washington.
You will like it there. Now run along and play but don’t get into trouble."
George promised to be compassionate
but it is easy for a little part time governor to forget.

At the white house, he found some tax cuts.
He wondered how he could give them to his friends.
George wasn’t curious about what happened when he cut taxes.
He just wanted to help his friends get richer.

Then George wanted to fight terrorism.
But he didn’t want to learn about history or root causes.
He just wanted to believe what his advisors told him
and fight the bad guys.

"Where are the weapons?" some people said.
"Where are the al Qaeda connections?" other people said.
But George was incurious.
He couldn’t wait to get the answers.
He wanted to invade now.

So George told all the soldiers to invade
and they rushed in hoping to be greeted with flowers.
But there were no flowers and yet George wasn’t curious about that.
He just said "mission accomplished" and moved on.

But the mission wasn’t accomplished.
The country fell into civil war and the people demanded that the soldiers leave.
But George preferred to believe his advisors and promised
that everything would be OK when democracy arrived.

Democracy didn’t arrive but George wasn’t curious about the reasons.
He said he didn’t read the newspapers or talk to experts.
The man with the red hunter’s hat told him all that he needed to know.
After all, the man had brought him all the way from Texas and was very wise.

And when the war dragged on and on, George didn’t ask why.
He just wanted to stay in the white house and play with all his trial balloons.
So the man in the red hunter’s hat arranged for him to stay another four years
and George decided to spend all his political capital.

But since George wasn’t curious,
he didn’t ask any questions before playing with his trial balloons.
When he tried to play with Social Security or Katrina or the Constitution,
he always managed to get in trouble and break something.

But finally the man in the red hunter’s hat came and rescued George.
He told him that he had broken all the balloons and that it was time to leave.
He said he had a new place for George to go.
So George left the white house and moved back to Texas.
What a nice place for George to live
and what a great relief for the country.