{"id":3156,"date":"2005-09-22T14:40:28","date_gmt":"2005-09-22T18:40:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kith.org\/journals\/vardibidian\/2005\/09\/22\/3156.html"},"modified":"2018-03-12T16:53:06","modified_gmt":"2018-03-12T21:53:06","slug":"the-window-the-window","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/2005\/09\/22\/the-window-the-window\/","title":{"rendered":"The window, the window"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Your Humble Blogger’s Perfect Non-Reader has finally developed a taste for Trout Fishing in America<\/a>, the children’s music band for people who take fun seriously. That’s just a gratuitous endorsement, as YHB could talk about threw it out the window<\/I> without mentioning TfiA, but it’s an opportunity, and I’ll take it.\nThe song itself is an old scout song, or campfire song, or what have you, and consists simply of taking a nursery rhyme and finding an appropriate place to swerve from the usual text to throwing something out the window, the window, the second story window<\/I>. F’r’ex:\n

Old Mother Hubbard went to the cupboard
\nTo get her poor dog a bone
\nWhen she got there, the cupboard was bare
\nSo she threw it out the window
\nThe window, the window, the second story window
\nWhen she got there, the cupboard was bare
\nSo she threw it out the window<\/blockquote>\nSimple, eh? Here’s another:\n
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall
\nHumpty Dumpty had a great fall
\nAll the king’s horses and all the king’s men
\nThrew him out the window
\nThe window, the window, the second story window
\nAll the king’s horses and all the king’s men
\nThrew him out the window<\/blockquote>\nOr how about\n
I see the moon
\nAnd the moon sees me
\nGd bless the moon
\nAnd throw it out the window
\nThe window, the window, the second story window
\nGd bless the moon
\nAnd throw it out the window<\/blockquote>\nThe odd thing is how well it works\n
Ladybug Ladybug fly away home
\nYour house is on fire and your children may burn
\nAll except one, whose name is Ann
\nThey threw her out the window
\nThe window, the window, the second story window
\nAll except one, whose name is Ann
\nThey threw her out the window<\/blockquote>\nOf course, nursery rhymes are pretty brutal, which may account for it.\n
Ding dong dell, Pussy’s in the well
\nWho put her in? Little Johnny Flynn
\nWho pulled her out? Little Tommy Stout
\nWhat a naughty boy was that
\nHe threw her out the window
\nThe window, the window, the second story window
\nWhat a naughty boy was that
\nHe threw her out the window<\/blockquote>\nThe thing is, that once you start, it’s hard to stop\n
Leave ’em alone, and they’ll come home
\nAnd throw you out the window
\nThe window, the window, the second story window
\nLeave ’em alone, and they’ll come home
\nAnd throw you out the window<\/blockquote>\nIt works with some that are now fairly obscure\n
Bobby Shaftoe’s gone to sea
\nSilver buckles at his knee
\nHe’ll come home and marry me
\nAnd throw me out the window
\nThe window, the window, the second story window
\nHe’ll come home and marry me
\nAnd throw me out the window<\/blockquote>\nAnd if you want to get all the way through the four verses of “I saw a ship a-sailing” they can throw the captain out the window, the window, the second story window, when the ship began to move, they threw him out the window. Some gave them plum cake and threw them out the window. To market, to market to buy a fat hog, and throw it out the window. Sukey take it off again, we’ve thrown them out the window. I chanced to meet an old man and threw him out the window. When they were only halfway up, he threw them out the window. Kits, cats, sacks and wives, let’s throw them out the window. This little piggy cried wee, wee, wee and jumped right out the window. One for the little boy, who threw it out the window. You used to come at ten o’clock and throw me out the window. She lies in bed ’til eight or nine—let’s throw her out the window. Here comes a Chopper to throw you out the window. I took him by the left leg and threw him out the window. OK, that last one is kind of cheating.\n

It’s also cheating, I think, to let Jack’s crown be headgear, and thus able to be thrown out the window. On the other hand, if you have patience, Old Dame Dob can throw him out the window. Actually, I think it’s harder to come up with nursery rhymes that can’t be thrown out the window.\n

OK, fine. So it’s a fun game. But ... how come nursery rhymes and not, say, pop tunes? Let’s keep it pre-Dylan, as it’s understandable that the current-day modern songwriters will not fall naturally into the ABAB sort of thing that suits the game. But what about the thirties? Let’s see ...\n

She hung around with a bloke named Smokey
\nShe loved him, tho’ he was cokey
\nHe took her down to Chinatown
\nAnd threw her out the window
\nThe window, the window, the second-story window
\nHe took her down to Chinatown
\nAnd threw her out the window<\/blockquote>\nHmmm...\n
Gee, it's great after being out late
\nWalking my baby back home!
\nArm in arm, over meadow and farm,
\nI throw her out zhe window
\nZhe window, zhe window, zhe second-story window
\nArm in arm, over meadow and farm,
\nI throw her out zhe window<\/blockquote>\nNo.\n
You've got to accentuate the positive
\nEliminate the negative,
\nLatch on to the affirmative,
\nAnd throw it out the window
\nThe window, the window, the second-story window
\nLatch on to the affirmative
\nAnd throw it out the window<\/blockquote>\nMaybe.\n
Button up your overcoat
\nWhen the wind is free
\nTake good care of yourself
\nOr I’ll throw you out the window
\nThe window, the window, the second-story window
\nTake good care of yourself
\nOr I’ll throw you out the window<\/blockquote>\nNo, no, no.\n
Summertime, and the livin' is easy
\nFish are jumpin', and the cotton is high
\nOh, your daddy's rich, and your ma is good-lookin'
\nSo hush, little baby
\nOr I’ll throw you out the window
\nThe window, the window, the second-story window
\nHush, little baby
\nOr I’ll throw you out the window<\/blockquote>\nI dunno...\n
Candy
\nit's gonna be just dandy
\nthe day I take my Candy
\nAnd throw her out the window...<\/blockquote>\n

Enough!\n

Well, I should probably add that when Keith and Ezra sing the thing, they tend to finish with ...\n

There's a lady who's sure all that glitters is gold
\nAnd she's buying a stairway to heaven
\nAnd when she gets there she knows if the stores are all closed
\nThey’ll throw her out the window!<\/blockquote>\n

chazak, chazak, v’nitchazek<\/I>,
-Vardibidian.\n<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Your Humble Blogger\u2019s Perfect Non-Reader has finally developed a taste for Trout Fishing in America, the children\u2019s music band for people who take fun seriously. That\u2019s just a gratuitous endorsement, as YHB could talk about threw it out the window…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[200],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-music-music"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3156"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17538,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3156\/revisions\/17538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}