The Merry Minuet
By Sheldon Harnick
They're rioting in Africa,
They're starving in Spain,
There's hurricanes in Florida,
And Texas needs rain.
The whole world is festering
With unhappy souls,
The French hate the Germans,
The Germans hate the Poles,
Italians hate Yugoslavs,
South Africans hate the Dutch,
And I don't like anybody
Very much.
But we can be tranquil
And thankful and proud,
For man's been endowed
With a mushroom-shaped cloud.
And we know for certain
That some lucky day,
Someone will set the spark off
And we will all be blown away.
They're rioting in Africa,
There's strife in Iran,
What nature doesn't do to us
Will be done by our fellow man.
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Not really a poem but lyrics from 1953, sung by Tom Lehrer who then introduced the song to the Kingston Trio who then made it famous. It came up in conversation with
I did nothing profound today...went out to the bank and for detergent, shampoo and girl stuff, stopped to pick up antibacterial hand gel and discovered this which made me so happy as it is perfect for my schlepping needs -- I am the world's cheapest purse buyer, even more so than shoes -- ran into my mother, wrote a couple of articles, finished crackfic (watch this space tomorrow for details), betaed good fic (see
Younger son's Furby that he was originally supposed to get for Chanukah, but was told that he could have in lieu of allowance for several weeks instead, arrived and instantly caused more strife than it's worth, as son wanted to do something, anything, that would enable him to get the Furby sooner. I tried explaining that he cannot do five weeks of bathroom-cleaning in a day but he has worked himself into a state anyway. Older son had peer mediation with the kids who have been hassling him in Spanish class, and that seems to have gone tolerably, which is something, though they insist that he must have started it somewhere back a year ago. This is going to sound incredibly awful, but one of the kids he carpools with was running for vice president of his grade, and lost, and I am actually somewhat relieved, as this kid has been getting more and more into the being-cool-and-popular thing and not being very friendly with my son and the other kid (total math geek) in the carpool, but I suspect he's not so big for his britches today. Speaking of presidents...
The rear of the mansion, with the grand porch and its row of chairs...
...overlooking this magnificent view of the Potomac River. (The land directly across has been left pristine so that the view will remain as it was when Washington lived here.)
One of the volunteers answers a visitor's question on the porch while people play on the lawn.
Photos are not permitted inside the mansion but they are in all the outbuildings, including this kitchen...
...and the slave quarters. At least fifteen people at a time lived in this room. The congitive dissonance of coming in here after being in the rooms where Washington discussed liberty with other Founding Fathers is remarkable.
Some links:
I did not talk like a pirate, but my kids came home from school telling me it was Pirate Day and AdventureQuest had one-day-only pirate games and they HAD to be allowed to go online even though it was a school day because it was a one time thing, so I let them just because I was curious. I didn't realize Talk Like A Pirate Day was so widespread. *g*
My pirate name is:
Dirty Ethel Flint
You're the pirate everyone else wants to throw in the ocean -- not to get rid of you, you understand; just to get rid of the smell. Like the rock flint, you're hard and sharp. But, also like flint, you're easily chipped, and sparky. Arr!
Get your own pirate name from fidius.org.
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