Too Much Good Stuff
Too much good stuff to sort out, but I am keeping a manuscript journal as I go... in Edinburgh (Ed-n-BURR-ah) now, Scotland, to which I have always wanted to go.
Post project for soon after I get back, sure to amuse Cogito:
How the British, who (as socialists) make the USA leftists look like Jerry Falwell, are so far into social surveillance and intrusion into areas we Yanks think are personal choices as to make the Bush Administration's alleged and real intrusions into privacy rights seems actually trivial in comparison.
And yet: all this Big Brother stuff is coming from the left?
Huh. Who'da Thunk?
;o/
Posted by WryMouth at 22 Feb 2008, 2:02 PM 
Categories: World Events, Security!, Socialists, Travelogue
Categories: World Events, Security!, Socialists, Travelogue
I look forward to reading the above-mentioned post. :)
I am reminded of the great cartoon of the two philosphers yelling at eachother from top-floor windows. A third philosopher, passing along the lane between the two buildings, comments to a friend that the men are arguing from different premises. (I like that joke a lot, and bring it in wherever I can, irrelevant or otherwise.)
I am going to have to Google Jerry Falwell. He does not come to mind, whereas his namesakes Jerry Lewis and Jerry Springer have made indelible marks on my UK consciousness. We Brits love reading about our quirks, in all spheres, so look forward to reading the percolating project!
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rowan, you make me laugh. right out loud. nice joke. I'm going to spread it around the English, ugh sorry, LANGUAGE ARTS teachers here at my middle school today.
here's one of my faves though not a cartoon, best heard, not read... the dumbfounded silence is best experienced with a roomful of 13 year old advanced math students:
Two atoms are walking down the street. One atom suddently turns and exclaims to the other,"I think I've lost an electron!"
"Lost and electron?! That's TERRIBLE - are you sure?!"
"I'm POSITIVE!"
(for full effect, it is best to repeat "I'M POSITIVE!" with more earnestness after the requisite 15 seconds of chirping crickets... you'll be rewarded with a few polite "heh"s as your spirit ascends to the heavens.)
I've also promised my 15 year old son that I'll never tell him why "You can't get down off an elephant" is funny (It's been six years now). He will be rewarded with a light-dawning on or around his 24th birthday, I'm sure.
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He will be rewarded with a light-dawning on or around his 24th birthday, I'm sure.
...which of course reminds ME of one of my favorite B.C. strips of all time, which I quote ad nauseam to unsuspecting friends, colleagues, and strangers:
"Did you ever hear about the [self-referential character] who spent all night on a hill wondering where the sun went after it set?
Finally it dawned on him."
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Hello Raymurgy and Cogito! Those jokes are true greats.
Howevurrr...I am still struggling with the elephant one, i'm ashamed to admit. I don't want the answer...I will puzzle it oot. Have several thoughts on the matter, and one clear front-runner.
The also-ran ideas (not including the literal interpretation, that you cannot get down from an elephant unless you have the agility of a trained mahout) are thus:
a) You cannot get down (become clinically depressed) when descending from an elephant, because the activity is so scary as to supplant negative thinking with acute terror.
b) One can't 'get down' in the dancing sense, cos it is again, too dangerous.
My favourite interpretation to date is that it is a rather edgy grammar joke: you cannot get down 'off' an elephant, but you can get down from one.
If I am near the mark on any of these, please let me know. if I am still way out there, groping in the gloom, I will continue to ponder...but I like pondering on stuff like this. It salves my guilt at not concentrating on more mundane matters that ought to have claimed my attention.
And so saying, Rowan goes in search of a clean cup for breakfast...
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Oh, well, you didn't hear the punchline...
Q: How do you get down off an elephant?
A: You don't get down off an elephant, you get down off a goose.
hmm... down off of an elephant; down off of a goose... down from an elephant, down from a goose...
Could it be the punchline is lost to American grammar. Proper grammar just might return the mystery to the "grammar school" level it's supposed to be.
You know how "us Americans" are - colloquial in every way, rules of grammar are for wimps (our schoolyard epithet for "smart kids"), the obnoxious "yeah, whatever" sort of people...
just remember, when the grammatical chips are down... correct the grammar in the following sentence:
America can shoot a satellite down by striking it in the gas tank with a supersonic missile on the first try.
because we don't know each other - all this is written in a light tone.
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Rowan, you'll be happy to know that Son of Raymurgy laughed genuinely at the premises joke. Oh, and Cogit, he groaned at the guy who stayed up all night. Dr Bob: I told him "down from a duck" so many years ago. Don't know why I changed to goose yesterday - I must be getting soft...
Number one son is still in the dark about why you can't get down from and elephant, though... he's thinking it has to do with how much ducks poop. Obviously he's grasping at straws - a fan of Weird Al, he needs to listen critically to "I Need a New Duck."
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I always thought it was "You don't get down from an elephant, you get down from a duck." Wry says goose is correct, but I like the alliterative "Down" and "Duck".
I liked all of your hypotheses, Rowan. Is it "down from" or "down off"? Anyone?
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Seems like in the source text (the 60s edition of the "Bennett Cerf Book of Riddles" if memory serves) the joke originally involved a 'duck'. And 'down from'.
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Hah!
(triumphant air punching)
Take that, Mr. "I read it on a Bazooka Joe comic"!
thanks, Cogito!
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"Bazooka Joe" comics are notorious for their loose and wildly inaccurate interpretations of the original texts.
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Raymurgy & I meant, rather, something along the lines of a "Bazooka Joe" comic; it was not meant to be interpreted literally... ;o/
But now, of course, I have to post on Bazooka Joe comics. They deserve a place here @ Wry Mouth.
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Hee hee! Hangin out with you guyz is fell braw. Am amang freends!
As a firm believer in the premise that having a recognised qualification in something allows you to disregard and flaut the principles upon which it is founded, I like to stretch the boundaries of grammar and make up my own rules. Anyways...I think the Guardian of Grammar, Lynn Truss, is a little off the mark on her definition on the use of the semi-colon. Neverthless: the fact that she and I could come to blows over the issue, reflects the fluidity of the whole grammar thingy. It is up for grabs, which is bloomin good, in my book. (We Scots have had a long history of having our language suppressed and undermined.)
That was a long preamble. I just want to float the possibility of encompassing both grammatical means of descending from the proverbial pachyderm. I screech the following at my five year-old daughter, on a daily basis, as she has ruined three pairs of new school shoes since Christmas, with her arboreal predilections. >_<
"Git yersel doon from offof that tree!"
Were/are there full-sized Bazooka Joe comics? I remember them lang syne from childhood:little bits of greasproof paper wrapped around bubblegum. There would be about five nano-frames of story, and that was my lot. Sigh. However, I have to say that parochially...Dundonians pay serious tribute to their comic book heroes. The biggest and most prominent statue in the city, taking pride of place in the city square, is no other than Desperate Dan. (A comic book cowboy who ate whole cows in a single pie.)
So... (penny eventually drops)you could get down from an elephant if he was wearing an expensive wadded ski jacket, and you charmed him into handing it over...
Have a good Sunday, you folks!
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evidently he's real desperate: he's eating cowpies.
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Bwa ha ha! I had forgotten what that means in the US. Dr Bob enlightened me on a prior brush with Desperate Dan. :D
I am attempting to post from my mobile phone, whilst stravaigin about. Watch this space... Thunk. (Rowan trips over tree root.)
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