The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by Barbara Gordon:

Take not the name of Francis James Child in vain! Cecil Sharp's name, though, may be slung about in casual discourse as much as you like.
This one isn't original, rather pinched from Alan Garner's collection The Guizer, but it seems fitting.

The Big Stone

Old people say there was once a great stone to St Andrew's parish.
And on top, under the lichen, there were words, but nobody could read them for they were all that weathered away, till a boy came and felt them clear with his fingers. And the words told:

'Hoik me over and
You'll not waste your time.'

Well, of course, that meant treasure, and they were levering and lifting to turn the stone, and a great stone it was, high as a horse and longer.
Well they got it up at last, end over and down. And they found more lettering, plain as when it was cut:

'I was tired of lying
On that side.'

Carrie @ 73, I had the same experience with Silverlock. Partly because the concept of the Commonwealth of letters had been well used by others by the time I read the book in the 1970s. Partly because his maturation wasn't believable to me - I never felt I was seeing him change.

There's a Doonesbury cartoon that addresses this. I couldn't find it with a quick google, but the first panel shows the professor providing 'wisdom, wisdom', and the next has the class giving back 'received wisdom'. A student (who?) challenges the prof, suggesting an alternative explanation, and the professor is excited. A real student! He hasn't seen one in years.
I suppose I'll have to go through my old Doonesbury books, now.

PRHM - I applied with about 5 chapters written. You only need a writing sample - and you might find out that your story really begins two chapters in, or one chapter before what you wrote.
Go ahead - apply. It will change your life, probably in the good way.
-Barbara

Ginger tea is my sovereign remedy. You can make it from scratch by boiling sliced ginger & lemon, or using the packets of granular ginger teamix (found in Chinatown markets) and adding a shot of lemon juice.
Sending wishes for health and rest.
-Barbara

Hm, I wonder how many people hit ML before reading their email? Roger's sent out an email with the url for the Refugee Camp.

Christmas cookies for everyone in the meantime! Still lots of iced bells, holly leaves and stars, and snowflake gingerbread cookies.

-Barbara

I can't help sherrold either, though I can offer that her lost song may be described as a 'catch' or a 'part-song', which isn't that much help in finding lyrics.
In consolation I offer the lyrics of Sid Kipper of the Kipper Family. The song I found first was The Black Bonny Hare but the better example is perhaps The Bonny Spotted Cuckoo:

On the 14th of May, at the break of the day
With me gun on me shoulder to the woods I did stray
Pack of cards in me pocket, me fiddle and all
And tucked down me trousers, me long peggin' awl

I met a young girl with her cheeks as a rose
Says I, can you tell me where the bonny black hare goes?
Well now, me kind sir, I've not seen it today
But I saw it last Tuesday over Gimmingham way.

Oh no, I insisted, you misunderstand
'Tis on your cuckoo's nest that I would lay my hand
If it's Cuckoos you want sir, 'tis quite plain to me
That the best thing for you is to go climb a tree

My dear pretty maiden it is surely no riddle
Just allow me to play you a tune on my fiddle
But sir, since you carry no baggage at all
Then this fiddle you play must be wondrous small

I am sure that my wishes could fit in with yours
So may I suggest a game of all fours?
Oh sir, I'm afraid that you must be some joker
For 'tis clear that the game you desire is poker

With that the girl turned away and was gone
Leaving this young man quite clearly undone
He took out his powder, his bullets as well
Then drew out his ramrod and there shot himself .

I had that spam too. Thought about emailing her back and explaining that literary agents were usually not interested in representing poets, and that any who were (NYLA, anyone?) were to be avoided.
Was the poem that began 'Dripping' intended to be funny?
-Barbara

I am utterly charmed to learn (while googling to find out whether it shouldn't be Fen Ditton) that the Railway Timetables sketch is quoted on the Swindon website as one of the Notable Things About Swindon.
-Barbara

I don't suppose they discussed whether to siphon gas out of the farm truck instead of taking the battery out of the SUV?
But now I really want to know what the petroglyph is for uranium.
-Barbara

Great relief all around. Take care of yourself now - and isn't the classic hospital escape via one of the laundry carts?
-Barbara

Rikibeth @ 38, it may have been the same sort of show, but due to my tender years, I saw it at either the Calgary Stampede or the Pacific National Exhibition, both of which used to have a much higher carny factor than they presently do.


The trick of the Girl-to-Gorilla show is explained briefly here, about 2/3ds down the page, a little after Geek and Giant Rat.

-Barbara

I too (I four?) have seen a stuffed two-headed calf, at the Calgary Stampede, many years ago. I believe there was a 3-eyed kid next to it, and maybe a curtained stall with pickled punks. A separate trailer had a Giant Paris Sewer Rat with its young.
I have also seen a woman change into a gorilla before my very eyes.
-Barbara

This was bothering me, because I was sure I'd seen a similar book mentioned (maybe on the SCA-Librarians list) but definitely not one published by PA, because I would have noticed that detail.
In case anyone else is wondering, it's Free for All: oddballs, geeks and gangstas in the public library, by Don Borchert, Virgin Books 2007.
Powells listing and reviews here. So it can be done without lawsuits and firings. (Apologies if this has already been mentioned elsewhere.)

From my mum, on going outside in the rain:
'You're not made of sugar, you won't melt.'
on asking for something to drink:
'There's plenty of water in the tap.'

My dad's advice was mostly given as anecdotes, but I've always remembered one rule:
'The larger the building, the more likely someone has left a door unlocked.'

My son can't recall any words of wisdom from me, but I'd offer 'Take that marble out of your mouth, or you'll swallow it.'
-Barbara

I noticed a while ago that at least one of the brands of sliced bread from Safeway doesn't have each slice the "counterpart of its fellows". The loaf alternates thinner and thicker. I suppose for people who prefer more delicate or sturdier sandwiches.
Once I knew who things were as dead as, before Queen Anne, but I've forgotten, and Brewer's doesn't say.
-Barbara

Since dinosaurs and sodomy have not yet been mentioned in this thread, may I point the way to -

A Queer Dinosaur, Unusual Friends, DINOOPS!!
Dinoops is the name for unusual group of dinosaurs. They are friends of a queer individual character causing many troubles with awkward movement as tyrannosaur, but not favoring meets. Some events and troubles always happen everywhere Dinoops goes. And......a laugh follows with. A noisy, unorganized and unexpected behavior of Dinoops makes all friends happy eventually. Although sometimes very annoying....

-Barbara (fan of Korean consumer products)

B Durbin @ 381 - you bet! And the Giant with the Three Golden Hairs, whose grandmother pulls out the hairs while she's 'combing' him, too.

In the book on Montaillou by Leroi-Ladurie (sp?) there's a mention of professional 'lousing women' in the 1200s who went from house to house, kind of like Avon Ladies or manicurists. If I ever need a new SCA persona ...

Okay, I better get back to revising said retelling.
-Barbara

B. Durbin @ 359 - Delousing was disguised / translated as 'combing' in many later retellings of the fairytales. (I'm working on a retelling of a Grimm tale, and got all excited when I was able to work in a sleep by delousing scene).

Oh, and to a previous thread on squirrels - there's a 1946 children's book by Richard Church, A Squirrel Called Rufus, a story about the war between native red squirrels and invasive greys in an English forest.

Good for Indiana! Now if only Maryland would follow suit...
-Barbara

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