Ace Frehley 1951-2025

 Goodbye Spaceman and thank you for so many great times.

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El burrito que no pudo sanar

En una hacienda, había un burrito que tiraba del arado y movía la noria con una voluntad inquebrantable. Trabajaba desde el alba hasta que la sombra se tragaba la luz. No había faena que no cumpliera.

Pero el dueño del burrito, que mandaba siempre con crueldad, encontraba un motivo para la queja de su burrito. Siempre un “no es suficiente”, un “podrías haber hecho más”. Al principio eran solo palabras ásperas, luego vinieron los golpes. El burrito, que tiraba del arado con diligencia, aguantaba el dolor y seguía con su labor, siempre en silencio. Sin embargo, al dueño ya no le bastaba la obediencia, ni el esfuerzo sin límites; parecía encontrar un oscuro deleite en el castigo.

El hijo de aquel dueño cruel, un muchacho con ojos que veían la injusticia, observaba todo con el corazón encogido. Sabía que alzar la voz solo le traería a él el látigo. Por eso, esperaba a la noche para cuidar del burrito. Cuando el sol se iba, se acercaba en secreto al burrito, con ungüentos suaves. Limpiaba y vendaba las llagas, y le daba un puñado extra de grano fresco. Sus manos eran el consuelo en la oscuridad del pobre animal.

Un día, el dueño no despertó. El muchacho heredó la hacienda.

El nuevo dueño dedicó su esfuerzo a sanar las heridas del burrito. Bajo su cuidado, el burrito trabajador conoció el buen pasto, el cobijo seguro, la caricia sin miedo. Recibió afecto genuino, y sus heridas comenzaron a cerrarse. Las llagas sanaron, una a una, dejando solo cicatrices pálidas.

El joven, queriendo colmar su vida de alegría, le trajo una compañera, y pronto tuvieron crías sanas y fuertes, que solo conocieron la bondad y la mano que acaricia del joven dueño.

Pero una de las llagas, la más profunda, se resistía al olvido. De vez en cuando, sin aviso, se abría un poco y dejaba escapar una gota de pus. El nuevo dueño se alarmó. Llamó al veterinario, que sabía de remedios, y probaron ungüentos de todo tipo, polvos y emplastos. Nada funcionó.

El burrito pudo vivir muchos años una vida plena y feliz, rodeado de su familia y del cariño sincero de su dueño.

Pero al final de sus días, la herida rebelde seguía allí. El joven, ahora un hombre sabio, comprendió. El dolor del alma, el daño causado por la maldad constante, no había sido solo piel y músculo. Ese dolor se había clavado tan hondo que ninguna medicina terrenal podía cerrarlo del todo. Tuvo el consuelo de haber hecho todo lo posible por dejar el pasado en el pasado y dar un presente próspero al burrito, pero sabía que el golpe que no se ve, el que se incrusta en el espíritu, a veces no sana del todo, solo se calma.

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Usborne KNOWHOW Omnibus Volume One

Welcome back! Today, we’re diving back into a compilation that defined childhood creativity for so many of us: the Usborne KNOWHOW Omnibus Volume One. This beast contains six amazing books, and it’s one we’ve been looking forward to. If you’ve seen our previous videos on the Usborne KNOWHOW series, you know what a goldmine these are. Let's not waste any time.

We start with arguably the most-used book in my own collection: The KnowHow Book of Paper Fun. Who else spent hours tearing, folding, and gluing? The results? Well, they never looked quite as crisp or wonderful as the photos in the book. My paper planes were lopsided, my paper chains were a bit of a mess, and the folding projects... let’s just say they had character. But that’s the magic of it, isn't it? The sheer excitement of doing it, and seeing a surprisingly funny, maybe even charmingly pathetic, result at the end was more than gratifying. It taught you that the process was the reward.

Next up, the volume responsible for making the biggest mess in my house: The KnowHow Book of Print and Paint. I used this one quite a bit, too! We’re talking potato printing, stamping, simple screen-printing techniques... basically, anything that involved dipping something in brightly colored paint and slamming it onto a piece of paper. You were a real artist for the afternoon, even if your hands, the table, and somehow the dog ended up covered in poster paint. Absolute chaos, but so much fun.

Then we move to The KnowHow Book of Flying Models. The hope, the ambition! We were building masterpieces: gliders, paper helicopters, and elaborate flying toys. In reality? Many didn't stay in the air for very long. They were beautiful, though! They had that aspirational Usborne look—clean lines and bright colors. They might have plummeted to the ground within seconds, but for those few glorious moments they were airborne, you felt like an aeronautical engineer.

Our fourth book is The KnowHow Book of Puppets. This one was gorgeous. The designs were very pretty, but I have to admit, I didn’t use it much. My puppet experience was mostly limited to the cloth creations we made in school, and the projects in this book seemed to need a lot more adult help, time, and specific materials than I had access to. Still, it was a wonderful read. It planted the seed of what you could make, even if you never actually made it.

And that feeling of aspiration carries right through to our final two books for this video: The KnowHow Book of Action Toys, followed by The KnowHow Book of Action Games.

Similar to the puppet book, I loved reading these. The toys and games they outlined—the mechanical contraptions, the complex board games—seemed so intricate and cool. But as a kid, they felt like monumentally difficult projects to tackle solo. I always thought, "Maybe with a little help, I could build that incredible marble run." These were the books that showed you the potential of making and designing.

And that brings us to the end of the first half of this massive compilation! From the simple chaos of paper and paint to the challenging ambition of action toys, Volume One has already given us a huge dose of creative nostalgia.

But don’t worry, that’s only half the story. The Usborne KNOWHOW Omnibus Volume One actually contains six books, so you know what that means...

...join me next time for Part Two, where we’ll explore the remaining three books and finish off the KNOWHOW Omnibus Volume One! You won’t want to miss it. Thanks for watching, and let me know in the comments which one of these was your favorite!

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