Hatch later apologized for his fowl apathy, but he needn’t have. After all, a number of other non-peons down through the eons haven’t given a hoot about one thing or another, including these warblers:
No doubt the Nuthatch in the White House thinks Orrin Hatch is a sage Grouse. Not to crow, but I don’t give a tweet….and from heron, never let it be said that I never write posts that are for the birds.
Hatch is retiring and not running for re-election in 2020, so he’ll definitely be (politically) extinct. As for Trump, he needs to go sooner than someday, before Liberal Democracy becomes extinct
January 5 is National Bird Day, a day to…. Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Superman (alias Clark Kent, alias George Reeves)! What’s more, January 5 is Reeves’ birdday — er, birthday! Of such happy ‘coincidences,’ ideas for posts are born.
No doubt you are too young to remember George Reeves as Superman in the early 1950’s TV series, The Adventures ofSUPERMAN. These many years later, the above Intro-clip seems either unintentionally laughable or laughably camp, but the series was highly popular and made Reeves a national celebrity. Unlike Superman, however, the actor wasn’t made of steel and self-destructed (took his own life) in 1959 at the age of 45.
So much for the coupling of the birds and the Reeves. Bee-lieve me, the rest of this post is strictly for the birds.
BIRDS OF A TETHER
Chancing to glance out my kitchen window
one early spring morning, I notice two robins
in the yard battling over the prize one of them
has extracted from the ground. Having always
thought of robins as harmonious birds, I watch,
fascinated, as the feathered fiends engage in a
furious tug of worm to claim (you would think)
the last night crawler on the face of the earth.
Finally, one of the orange-breasted warriors prevails,
and down the hatch goes the winner’s breakfast.
I don’t know if the victor was the one who found
the worm first. All I know is the ill-fated victim was
the one who didn’t have much choice in the matter.
But let us not end on a downer. Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap; they sing and tweet. So let’s all sing like the birdies sing:
Yes, my friends, there was a once-upon-a-time when tweets were carefree, joyful and strictly for the birds/bird lovers. What has this world come to? Tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet!
Actually, I’m not a big Superman fan and never saw the Superman movies or read Superman comics. I did watch some of the Superman TV shows as a teenager in the early 1950s, but subsequently lost interest. So I had to look up the Canadian connection and thank you for leading me to this interesting trivia: http://globalnews.ca/news/494608/10-fun-facts-about-supermans-canadian-ties/
I was a huge fan of the Supe in my comic book-reading youth, and even made the mistake once of dressing as the Man of Steel for Halloween, which caused a Kryptonite-like reaction in some of the older kids in the neighborhood.
Makes me wonder what The Donald dressed as for Halloween in his youth. I can picture him as a clown now, but as a kid, he probably stayed home playing Monopoly for practice and thought of trick-or-treaters as losers.
Don Frankel
5:17 pm on January 5, 2017 Permalink
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Actually I knew the words to the intro almost by heart. Not that I was a big Superman fan just that there wasn’t a whole lot of TV back then. But as immortal as Superman was he did not have a cell phone so unfortunately he could not tweet at all. Also where would he change into his Superman suit now?
Because I have long taken a fancy to light verse, I wrote a number of nursery rhyme-like poems in my early poetry writing days because such poems are in the light verse vein, though seemingly just for children….but look at Mother Goose: if a bit of wit (in the telling) warrants a closer gander, the simplicity may not lay an egg in the eyes of grown-ups.
November 20 being UNIVERSAL CHILDREN’S DAY and WORLD CHILDREN’S DAY, I thought I would bring back a selection of those poems — say 20% of 20 — for a second childhood look. Two have been published in children’s magazines, two have not. You might even say that two of the four are for the birds. Well, as Humpty Dumpty may have shrugged after his fall, “Wall, you can’t win ’em all.”
A GOOD QUESTION
Free as a bird —
That’s what I’d like to be.
But, if I were a bird —
Who would be me?
THE ONE WHO WON
The tortoise and the hare
Ran a race from here to there.
The winner, of the pair,
Was the tortoise, by a hair.
OF ALL PLACES!
Birds build nests
Where they will —
Gutter, building ledge,
Window sill.
One I saw
Amazed me —
It was nestled
In a tree!
(N)ICE TRY!
There was once a brave lad from Nebraska
Who went off on a trip to Alaska.
To climb up steep slopes, he bid —
But they were so slick, he slid
Almost all the way back to Nebraska!
Is word play child’s play or hard work, you ask? As both a light verse and jazz lover, I can tell you it helped to have….
I like the bird one. I know more than a couple folks who wouldn’t mind swapping with a bird, actually, although I haven’t met any birds who were looking for a trade.
I like limericks too, but the format doesn’t adapt to appearing in a blog like it should. For example, in the old days bc (before computers), the 3rd & 4th lines of a limerick were always indented about 3 spaces, which of course is no problem on a typewriter….but I couldn’t do that with the limerick in my post because the 3 blank spaces won’t “stick.” Thus, the 3rd & 4th lines begin even with the 1st, 2nd & 5th lines, and there’s nothing I can do about it (that I know of). I know it seems a minor thing, but poetry in general and limericks in particular are precise literary forms, and it irritates me that, for all its wonders, technology can’t do something so simple.
If I’m not mistaken, Don, that song is by Cole Porter – a sophisticated composer one normally wouldn’t associate with nursery rhymes, but in this case, I can see your point. In a certain sense, I guess you could describe many popular songs of that era as light verse set to music.
I enjoyed your rhymes very much. I still have my first book of nursery rhymes “Original Nursery Rhymes with Variations” by Anne Hope. No date but must be circa 1950, printed in England with an illustration of Bo Peep on the cover. When I was about eight my mother donated the book to some organization and she says I was so upset she had to go retrieve it! Thanks for the video, I was tapping my toes while drinking my first cup of coffee!
RMW, you made my day by appreciating (and toe-tapping to) the video “Rhythm in My Nursery Rhymes.” It’s a song I knew of and like, but I didn’t expect to find such a “swinging” version of it (shown with accompanying nursery rhymes) on YouTube. As you probably noticed, both the recording and the nursery rhyme pages were English, just like your first book of nursery rhymes….which I’m very glad your mother retrieved for you! 🙂
Don Frankel
9:16 am on November 23, 2015 Permalink
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Muse that’s it. Yeah, there’s a certain lightheartedness to the song and the music even though she shot her man and they hung her.
I love the song and my favorite rendition is the one I found here by the great Nancy Wilson. I’m always happy that I managed to use her image in one of my short stories.
Don, Nancy Wilson indeed does the song justice. For some reason, I never appreciated her voice as much as I should have — perhaps because I’ve always been such a big fan of Billie, Ella, and some others who are mostly forgotten today.
You’ve heard of Charles Darwin. Also, concordantly, Henry David Thoreau. If you’re really into national parks, naturally you’re familiar with John Muir (“Father of the National Parks”). If you have an avian fixation, you’re birds-of-a-feather with John James Audubon, world famous ornithologist and painter of our feathered friends. But I suspect that the name of John Burroughs probably drew a blank when you saw it in my last post.
Fame is fickle. In his day, Burroughs (1837-1921) was as well known as any of the above naturalists who remain well remembered today. But, according to biographer Edward Renehan, he was more “a literary naturalist” than a scientific one, which (along with his rejection of religious orthodoxy) may account somewhat for his fading into relative obscurity. Whatever the case, Burroughs, who was a contemporary of Thoreau and Audubon, a good friend of Muir (as well as of Walt Whitman and Theodore Roosevelt), and has been called “America’s Darwin,” has been left in their shadow. More’s the pity.
The last of his many books was ACCEPTING THE UNIVERSE (1920), from whence the quote in my 9/20 post. Other quotes I like from Burroughs’ works include these:
Nature is not moral. There is no moral law until it is born of human intercourse. The law of the jungle begins and ends in the jungle; when we translate it into human affairs, we must take the cruelty of the jungle out of it, and read it in terms of beneficent competition. Man is the jungle humanized.
The greatest of human achievements and the most precious is that of the creative artist. In words, in color, in sounds, in forms, man comes closest to emulating the Creative Energy itself. It seems as if the pleasure and the purpose of the Creative Energy were endless invention.
How beautifully the leaves grow old. How full of light and color are their last days.
Only a living tree drops its fruit or its leaves; only a growing man drops his outgrown opinions.
I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all the friends I want to see.
I am already campaigning for Darwin Day as a national holiday for rationalists. They should put this guy on a postage stamp, at least. Thanks for bringing him to our attention Sr. Muse
An excellent suggestion, Ricardo. Now that America has the “FOREVER” postage stamp, we have a stamp fit for making up to Mr. Burroughs for his country’s forgetfulness.
Don Frankel
4:08 pm on September 25, 2015 Permalink
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You never know Muse. Sometimes these type of people come back into vogue. Naturalists might become the subject of some documentary or movie. Hey almost no one had heard of Scott Joplin until that movie The Sting. Till then Muse, you keep them alive.
Among Ken Burns’ many great documentaries was THE NATIONAL PARKS: AMERICA’S BEST IDEA (in which John Muir was a major figure), so it wouldn’t be a stretch for him to do one on naturalists.
Gifford Pinchot, flawed though he was, created the conservation ethic. He found the way not to wreck the economy of man while at the same time not clearing all the forest in the process.
He did however oppose Muir a few times and his view was economic only as he didn’t value preservation for the sake of beauty; his biggest flaw in my opinion. Though likely viewed as an enemy by some contemporary conservationists, Pinchot and Teddy Roosevelt did help to get the ball rolling in the process of creating National Parks.
I got the heeby jeebies reading this tome
Please tell me those animals don’t live in your home
For company may visit but never come back
Could be those yak antlers you use as a rack.
Questions, Sr. Muse, that remained unasked by zoology until now. Most of them remain unanswered by contemporary researchers. Those people need to get on the stick.
That reminds me that I forgot to include elephants and donkeys in my poem, but the Repubs & Dems are already hogging all the attention, so they can do without mention from me .
I don’t think many Americans are familiar with the English comedian Spike Milligan — I wasn’t — so I watched his youtube clips IRISH ASTRONAUTS and IDIOT SCOUTS. Jolly good show, don’t you know! So….thanks for the comment and the exordium (it’s not often I get to use that word) to Milligan. 🙂
calmkate 2:39 am on January 17, 2019 Permalink |
lol oh my your blood pressure must be rocketing … keep cool he is a fool!
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mistermuse 11:41 am on January 17, 2019 Permalink |
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Yeah, Another Blogger 9:10 am on January 17, 2019 Permalink |
🐔🐧🐦
See you —
Neil Scheinin
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masercot 9:26 am on January 17, 2019 Permalink |
I was just listening to Garland’s “But, Not For Me”…
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mistermuse 11:47 am on January 17, 2019 Permalink |
Garland and Gershwin — a combo that is definitely for me.
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Edmark M. Law 9:32 am on January 17, 2019 Permalink |
😃
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mistermuse 11:50 am on January 17, 2019 Permalink |
Sounds like the way Hatch and Trump would play it. 😦
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Richard Cahill 1:32 pm on January 17, 2019 Permalink |
Apathy–the King of Emotions!
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mistermuse 3:37 pm on January 17, 2019 Permalink |
….except for Trump, for whom arrogance is the King of Emotions — or should I say, the Towering Emotion.
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D. Wallace Peach 2:35 pm on January 17, 2019 Permalink |
All I can say is someday they’ll be extinct.
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mistermuse 3:46 pm on January 17, 2019 Permalink |
Hatch is retiring and not running for re-election in 2020, so he’ll definitely be (politically) extinct. As for Trump, he needs to go sooner than someday, before Liberal Democracy becomes extinct
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JosieHolford 4:22 pm on January 17, 2019 Permalink |
Looks like you’re not feathering your GOP nest! (Fun post. Thanks)
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mistermuse 7:18 pm on January 17, 2019 Permalink |
I wouldn’t risk any nest a GOP elephant with a bird brain (and even smaller heart) can throw its weight around in, Josie.
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JosieHolford 9:11 pm on January 17, 2019 Permalink
If you think of the US as a nest they are certainly fouling it with their flocking together.
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Silver Screenings 2:55 pm on January 20, 2019 Permalink |
I was familiar with Judy Garland’s version, but had never heard Al Jolson’s rendition before. Thanks for posting it! 🙂
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mistermuse 7:07 pm on January 20, 2019 Permalink |
Thanks for your comment.
Ironically, the Al Jolson recording was made the same year Judy Garland was born (1922).
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Silver Screenings 7:23 pm on January 20, 2019 Permalink
No way!! That’s an interesting twist.
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Eliza 4:35 pm on January 21, 2019 Permalink |
Thank you MM elizareasonstolive.com/one-hundred-and-fifty-six-a-matter-of-mattering/
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mistermuse 12:11 am on January 22, 2019 Permalink |
I recommend checking out Eliza’s blog. It’s just a “matter” of clicking on her name above.
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Eliza 1:31 pm on January 22, 2019 Permalink
Aww thanks. I’m touched. Though that is your reason, not mine.
Lotsa love and light….
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