Archive for January, 2000
(Warning: This week's column contains various tasteless and profane phrases. They're what pass for humor in these parts. Kids these days, grumble grumble.) [added note, 13 February 2000: Originally, this column included an entertaining but fairly tasteless game having to do with Charlie Brown book titles. Last night, Charles Schultz died in his sleep. I […]
nj recommends a book called Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts : The Subversive Folklore of Childhood by Josepha Sherman (author of several other works of folklore and fantasy) and T. K. F. Weisskopf. nj says "It's a pretty extensive compendium and analysis of gross-out rhymes and variations, with some discussion of why kids are fascinated by […]
A while back, I mentioned a jump-rope or ball-bouncing chant in which you make up words starting with a given letter: "A, my name is Alice and my husband's name is Al; we come from Alabama and we sell aardvarks." Ever since then I've been wanting to discuss jump-rope rhymes, counting-out rhymes, and clapping-pattern rhymes, […]
Have received a surprising number of responses on this one—seems to have struck a chord. Maybe just because I've finally started posting reader comments in a timely manner again (though I've still got an enormous backlog). DaveJ, of Portland, Oregon, maintains that those who live there are Portlanders, not Portlandites. There's clearly some difference of […]
A few miscellaneous items this week to get the new year off to a good start. Letter to the Editor Elliott Moreton, amanuensis at large, forwarded this timely item: Dear Editor: Starting today, January 1, 2000, we will all be living in the future! This will have many crucial impacts for culture, industry, commerce, architecture, […]