Some Outtakes from Poopendous!

Now, just like The Butt Book in which some of my favorite verses ended up
on the cutting-room floor—the outtakes—Poopendous! initially contained
the following gems, which never made it into the finished product:

When scientists converge to chat,
the word they use for dung is "scat."

Beans retrieved from civet scat
make great coffee. How about that!?

I liked this couplet because it both introduced the word "scat" (and
Poopendous! is educational!) and the fascinating fact that coffee beans that
pass through the digestive tract of the Asian palm civet, a small cat-like
animal, are among the most highly prized in the world. In fact, civet coffee
is the most expensive coffee you'll find. A percolatorful could bankrupt a
coffee aficionado. Who would have thought?! But apparently, young
readers, though riveted by civet poop, are much less interested in great
coffee than are aging writers.

Babies poop. Adults do, too.
Even Winnie had to poo!

I loved this verse, though I was concerned that it could be
problematic. I worried, of course, about trademark infringement. Still, I
fought vigorously for it. I envisaged the perfect illustration to accompany
the verse: An outhouse blows over, and we spy a pair of feet emerging from
beneath a broadsheet newspaper belonging to an unidentified individual
sitting and reading on the toilet. I felt that because we weren't using the
image of the iconic Disney character—and we weren't using the actual
name Winnie-the-Pooh—we wouldn't be courting trouble. But wiser heads
prevailed.