“THE LATEST FROM PARIS.”

From the Book:  Mary Had a Little Lamb and Other Good Stories.

Henry Altemus Company:  Philadelphia. 1906.

“A STRANGE MONKEY.”

What have we here?

How very queer!

A monkey can it be?

But such a monkey in my life

I ne’er before did see.

Oh, dear, dear, dear,

I sadly fear

That something has gone wrong;

‘Tis Charlie fastened to a chain

That’s stout, and strong, and long.

Mary Had a Little Lamb

And Other Good Stories

Henry Altemus Company: Philadelphia. 1906.

De flesta av oss har väl hört talas om barnkammarimmet Mary had a little lamb…skall vara inspirerat av en verklig händelse…
Är du nyfiken kan du kika lite pånedanstående länk…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Had_a_Little_Lamb

Eva and the little lamb…

Mary had a little lamb,
whose fleece was white as snow.

And everywhere that Mary went,
the lamb was sure to go.

It followed her to school one day
which was against the rule.

It made the children laugh and play,
to see a lamb at school.

And so the teacher turned it out,
but still it lingered near,

And waited patiently about,
till Mary did appear.

“Why does the lamb love Mary so?”
the eager children cry.

“Why, Mary loves the lamb, you know.”
the teacher did reply.

Mary is the mother of Jesus, who is also called the Lamb of God. A lamb in the old testament is considered a “clean animal” and was used to redeem an unclean animal. See Exodus 13. Or quit reading this and  watch this sermon by Ps. Robert Morris.

Then the poem/song talks about how the lamb followed her, wherever she went. The same is true of Jesus. He is always with us, by us, in us, around us. He is always there. Ok, pretty straight forward, right?

But now it gets interesting, almost prophetic when it says, “It followed her to school one day, which was against the rule.” The American education system started out on Christian principles, kids used to learn to read using the Bible. It wasn’t until a few decades ago that prayer and any mention of God started being banned in our schoolhouses. So at the time this poem was written, it was not against the rule, but now it is.  In the poem it talks about how the Lamb made the children laugh and play, which is consistent with the Bible’s teaching of how Jesus loved the children and how our joy is found in Him.

Then we see that the teacher turned out the lamb, but still it lingered near until Mary came back. Not to get too political, but after Newtown, people asked where was God. The simple answer was, He was always near those children, just not invited in. I think that Jesus is still waiting for us to invite Him back into our hearts, back into our lives.

The best part of this poem/ song is the end, when it asks why the lamb loves Mary, and the teacher says it’s because Mary loves the lamb. It’s a relationship. Why do I love Jesus? Because He first loved me. Jesus is loving you, too, and He’s lingering near, waiting for you to come back.

Who knew a children’s nursery rhyme could serve as a reminder of Jesus’ love?

It followed her to school one day,
Which was against the rule;
It made the children laugh and play
To see a lamb at school.

And so the teacher turned it out,
But still it lingered near,
And waited patiently about,
Till Mary did appear.

Why does the lamb love Mary so?
The eager children cry;
Why Mary loves the lamb, you know,
The teacher did reply.

The imagery and names used in this poem point to its having been constructed as a Christian homily for children. Such rhymes were extremely popular in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, so popular, in fact, that William Blake used the form as a template for his famous Songs of Innocence and Experience, published in 1794 (think of ‘Little Lamb, who made thee’ and ‘Tiger, tiger, burning bright’). Mary,of course, is the name of Christ’s mother and one of the most commonly used images for Jesus is that of the Lamb of God, the fleece as white as snow a symbol of his goodness and purity.

The poem can be read as a parable of Christ’s enduring love for mankind (Why does the lamb love Mary so?), that he is with Christians everywhere (And everywhere that Mary went, / The lamb was sure to go) and that the true Christian should love God and ignore other people’s mockery (It made the children laugh and play). In the style of these homilies, the teacher would have used Mary’s story explicitly to draw this improving moral, spelt out in the final verse.

To see how the poem came about, we need to go back to the early nineteenth century. It was reported in a 1902 edition of the New York Times Book Review that when Dr Lowell Mason introduced singing into Boston schools in 1827 he asked noted writers to contribute songs and rhymes, and one of the contributors was Sarah Josepha Hale (1788–1879), who supplied ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’.

The rhyme proved so popular that many found it hard to believe that it wasn’t based on a true incident; indeed Mrs Hale had hinted as much. When in 1913 the New York Times ran an interview with Richard K. Powers of Lancaster, Massachusetts, who was celebrating his one hundred and eighth birthday, he talked about ‘Mary had a Little Lamb’ and commented: ‘Mary was my cousin, her full name was Mary Elizabeth Sawyer.’ Very conveniently, Mary Sawyer had written a complete account, at the age of eighty-eight. Here’s her story, in her own words – I’ve done a little pruning to keep her to the point because, as you’ll see, she’s not one for saying things briefly:

‘One cold, bleak March morning, I went out with father to the barn and found a lamb that had been born in the night. It had been forsaken by its mother and through neglect was about dead from the cold and for want of food. I saw it had a little life and wanted to take it into the house, but father said no as it was about dead anyway and could only live for a short time. But I could not bear to see the poor little thing suffer so, and I teased until I got it into the house and then worked on mother’s sympathy.

At first it could not swallow, and the catnip tea I had mother make, it could not take for a long time. I got the lamb warm first thing, which was done by wrapping her in an old garment and holding her in my arms beside the fireplace. All night long I nursed the lamb and at night it could swallow just a little.

In the morning, much to my girlish delight, it could stand and then improved rapidly. It soon learned to drink milk, and from the time it could walk about it would follow me anywhere if I called it. It was a fast grower, as symmetrical a sheep who ever walked and its fleece was of the finest and whitest. Why, I used to take as much care of it as a mother would of a child. I used to wash it regularly, keep the burdocks out of its feet and comb and trim with bright coloured ribbons the wool on its forehead. And when that was being done, the lamb would hold down its head, shut its eyes and wait as patiently as could be.

Then my brother Nate said: ‘Let’s take the lamb to school with us.’ When the schoolhouse was reached, the teacher had not arrived but a few scholars were there. I took her down to my seat – you know we had the old-fashioned, high-boarded seats back then. Well, I put the lamb under the seat on a blanket and she lay down just as quietly as could be.

By and by, I had to get up to recite and left the lamb all right, but in a minute there was a clatter, clatter on the floor and I knew it was the pattering of the hooves of my lamb. Oh, how mortified I felt. The teacher laughed outright and of course all the children giggled. It was rare sport for them but I couldn’t find anything mirthful in the situation. I was too embarrassed and ashamed to even laugh or smile. I took the lamb out and put it in the shed until I was ready to go home at noon, when it followed me back.

Visiting the school that forenoon was a young man called John Roulstone. He was very pleased at the school incident and the next day he rode across the fields on horseback, came to the little old schoolhouse and handed me a slip of paper which had written on it three verses, which are the original lines, but since then there have been other verses added by a Mrs Townsend.’

Personally, I have a few doubts. In the first place, if the lamb was so special to Mary, why didn’t it have a name? And if it did have a name, why didn’t she use it, or how had she forgotten it and yet remembered so many other small details so many years afterwards? Also, the rhyme was not published until 1830, fourteen years later. Would you still remember something a passing nine-year-old had written about your pet all those years ago?

While there may be some dispute about whether Roulstone wrote any part of the poem, or whether Sarah Hale composed the whole thing, Massachusetts has nonetheless claimed the rhyme (and the consequent increase in their tourist industry), and both Mary Sawyer’s house in Sterling (until it burned down in 2007) and the small Redstone School have been preserved as a memorial. Today, in Sterling town centre, there stands a statue of a lamb in tribute to John Roulstone and displaying the first verse of the poem. Incidentally, Mary Sawyer’s little lamb, a ewe, apparently lived to be four years old and had three of her own baby lambs.

Personally, I prefer this version of the rhyme:

 
Mary had a little lamb,
It really was a glutton;
It quickly grew into a sheep
And ended up as mutton.

Or this one:

Mary had a little lamb,
But then she had a hunch
When Dad came home with mint sauce,
They were having lamb for lunch.

“I Wish I Had a Larger Net!”
Mary Had a Little Lamb and Other Good Stories
Henry Altemus Company: Philadelphia. 1906.

“Once Bitten, Twice Shy.”
Mary Had a Little Lamb and Other Good Stories.
Henry Altemus Company: Philadelphia. 1906.

A burnt dog dreads the mustard pot;

However you may try

To coax him, he will taste it not –

Once bitten is twice shy.

Elizabeth Willis Barrett………..January 17, 2013

The best way to learn something is to teach it.  Therefore, I have commandeered my grandson into helping me learn to play the guitar by letting me teach him how to play.   I think he might soon end up teaching me a lot more than I teach him.

Today I went to his house and found him upstairs doing homework on his bed–very impressive.  He came on down with his guitar and patiently let me lead him through “Mary Had a Little Lamb” and “You Are My Sunshine.”  Those aren’t exactly what he listens to on his IPod but since I don’t know his IPod songs, we had to start somewhere.  The chords we are working on are the A, the D and the E7.   I’m trying to sneak in a little music theory as long as I’m teaching him because it adds so much sense to things.  Wish I could add sense to everything else in life–sense that he could understand.

I love being with him.  He brings me so much joy.  I hope he knows that.

“Who Will Win the Race?”
Mary Had a Little Lamb
Henry Altemus Company: Philadelphia. 1915.

Though the lyrics to the song “Lose Control” is inspired by the nursery rhyme of “Mary Had a Little Lamb”, it was also inspired by the name of my childhood friend Mary Wallace, mentioned in my elementary school class assignment to the left.

Soon after working on ideas for Miami Vice with Michael Jackson and giving Michael Hutchence the nickname Max for the Australian film Mad Max, I met the star of the film Australian Mel Gibson.  We then worked on ideas for another cop film Lethal Weapon.

Mel knew of my plight, that I had gone to the police about Joe Elliott of Def Leppard and Kurt Cobain stalking and abusing me.  Mel also knew that music producer Mutt Lange called in Chris Blackwell of Island Records who then proclaimed me his enemy.  It was Chris’ long time association with the Queen of England which kept Joe and Kurt from being prosecuted in the US.

I had already written the song “Lose Control” which would be recorded by Evanescence, and I told Mel of my friend Mary Wallace who inspired me  to use the name in the song.

Mel decided to make a film about the life of the 13th Century Scottish warrior William Wallace who, according to folklore, was married to Marion Braidfute (Murron MacClannough in the film Braveheart 1995). 

He wanted to make a connection to me through the film and with Wallace.  Like me, Wallace refused to “bow” or back down even at the request of the English sovereign, who for Wallace it was then King Edward I of England.  After he was betrayed Wallace was tried in Westminster Hall and sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered.   The same Hall in the palace that addresses were presented at Elizabeth II‘s Silver Jubilee (1977).  This would inspire me to write the song I Will Not Bow recorded by the band I named Breaking Benjamin.

Wallace’s body was cut into pieces which were put on display in various place and his head placed on London Bridge.  After being told of the story of Wallace, a few years later I would write the song “London Bridge“, recorded by the artist I gave the stage name of Fergie for the nickname of Sarah, Duchess of York.

About a year ago, I did this cover of Mary Had a Little Lamb originally by Buddy Guy and interpreted later on by SRV. I had a lot of fun doing it, it’s a great tune I hope you liked it.
More videos on my channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/AlexMusicOvery?feature=watch

Hello all

You never know who will come across your path when you visit the shops at Christmas time, do you? I love Christmas and I love people and the two almost never disappoint.

You see, I was in the lift of a local department store this morning with a couple. The man commented to his wife on the poster on the lift wall advertising a Kenwood mixer: Look at that! Ken-wood.” I asked what he meant and he said that his father’s name was Ken Wood. We laughed about it together as the lift slowly went up to the next floor where we all alighted.

As we walked out, the wife remarked to me: “What about my name though: Hollywood.” She must have seen the puzzled look on my face because she explained that her name was Holly and she married a Wood. Therefore her name was Holly Wood. Poor thing! And thus began a discussion about interesting names including my own dread of meeting a man named Green eg Theresa Green (trees are green).

The woman who does not exist at all!

It is amazing how you can become friendly with people within two minutes of sharing a ride in a lift. By the time we parted, we had wished each other a lovely day and a cheery “have a nice Christmas.“

This brought to mind some funny names and interesting things I have come across the last two days. For instance, have you ever heard of a “Mondegreen?” Or what about a “Fishmas tree?” But the best one of all is this: what is a “bolla-mistickta?”

Firstly, let’s tackle the MONDEGREEN. I have to be honest here and say this term has never come across my path before. So, here is my understanding of it:

“The term Mondegreen was originally coined by author Sylvia Wright, and has come to be quite widely used. As a child, Wright heard the lyrics of The Bonny Earl of Murray (a Scottish ballad) as:

Ye highlands and ye lowlands
Oh where hae you been?
Thou hae slay the Earl of Murray
And Lady Mondegreen

It eventually transpired that Lady Mondegreen existed only in the mind of Sylvia Wright, for the actual lyrics said that they “slay the Earl of Murray and laid him on the green.” And to this day Lady Mondegreen’s name has been used to describe all mishearings of this type!”

Now, this leads me to the word “bolla-mistickta.” I first heard this word from three four-year olds in my car on the way home from pre-school and I didn’t realise at the time that there was a name for what they said. My son Daniel and his two little friends began singing this little ditty over and over:

“I’m being followed by a bolla-mistickta … “

The bolla-misticta Mondegreen

As I listened I said to them I realised that they were trying to sing an old ballad about being  “swallowed by a boa-constrictor”. Here are the real words:

I’m being swallowed by a boa-constrictor, a boa-constrictor, a boa-constrictor/ I’m being swallowed by a boa-constrictor / And I don’t like it one little bit. / Oh, no, he’s got my toe / O gee, he’s up to my knee / Oh, my, he’s reached my thigh / O fiddle, he’s up to my middle /Oh heck, he’s up to my neck / O dread, He’s got my . . . (gulp!)

What the children heard was actually a “Mondegreen.” No one is being ‘followed’ either! Thirty-three years later we still laugh about it. But according to Frances Whiting (who writes a delightful column for the local Sunday paper) Mondegreens are very common. Here is what Frances has to say:

“But it is at Christmas time that Mondegreens really come into their own, and I say this as one of the many children who encouraged Baby Jesus to ‘sleep in heavenly peas’ during Silent Night.”

Then there is this one from the beautiful Spanish Christmas song Feliz Navidad which was interrupted as: “Police got my dad.”  Then there is: “Joy to the World, the Lord has come!” which some child heard as: “World, the Lord has Gum!” Someone who liked chewing gum no doubt and thought we should tell the world.

And a “fishmas tree” is a fish on a plate cut out in the shape of a tree with green peas added for decorations. I saw this on an English cooking show. Trust the English to come up with this one, for they really love their fish … even at Christmas apparently.

And on that note, I will leave you on Day 345, reminding you that I have fourteen more days (and posts) until I complete my Blog Challenge. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the remaining days of the festive season as much as I am.

Make a point of developing the spirit of a child, imbibe the good will, breathe deeply and open your clenched fists whilst you prepare your heart for peace with the coming of the Christ Child …

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1890 – Dion Fortune born.   British occultist and author. Her pseudonym (she was born Violet Mary Firth Evans) was inspired by her family motto “Deo, non-fortuna” ( “by God, not fate”).

Of her works on magical subjects, the best remembered of her books are; The Cosmic Doctrine, a summation of her basic teachings on mysticism, Psychic Self-Defense,  a manual on how to protect oneself from psychic attacks and The Mystical Qabalah,  an introduction to Hermetic Qabalah which was first published in England in 1935, and is regarded by many occultists as one of the best books on magic ever written. Though some of her writings may seem dated to contemporary readers, they have the virtue of lucidity and avoid the deliberate obscurity that characterised many of her forerunners and contemporaries.

She also  wrote about the “Magical Battle of Britain”,[ which was a purported attempt by British occultists to magically aid the war effort during World War II. Her efforts in regard to this are recorded in a series of letters she wrote at the time. The effort involved is said by some  to have contributed to her death shortly after the war ended.

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1933 – U.S. federal judge John M. Woolsey ruled that the James Joyce‘s novel Ulysses is not obscene.

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1949 – Leadbelly died. Huddie William Ledbetter, American folk and blues musician, and multi-instrumentalist, notable for his strong vocals, his virtuosity on the twelve-string guitar, and the songbook of folk standards he introduced.

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1969 – Meredith Hunter  killed by the Hells Angels during  Rolling Stones‘s concert at the Altamont Speedway in California.  During the performance by , he  was punched by Hells Angels  serving as security guards. He subsequently drew a gun, and was stabbed to death by Hells Angel Alan Passaro.

Some claim it happened while the Stones were playing Sympathy For The Devil,  thus giving it an extra frisson, but it was actually while they were performing Under My Thumb.

Many commentators have seen this event  as the symbolic end of the Hippie dream, such as it was.

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I remember when I first started my keyboard lessons, I was excited but a bit anxious.  I was scared that I might not learn.  But our book is quite easy to follow so I learned easily.

When I started playing piano, I couldn’t even read a single note. Practice helped a lot.

I also remember the first keyboard piece I played without making a mistake  It was Mary had a little lamb. I was so proud that I finished a piece even though it was just a simple nursery song (rhyme).  Here goes:

I just couldn’t believe that  my musical journey has taken me from Nursery rhymes to Beethoven.

That’s all folks! Please leave a comment… and don’t forget to “like” my post on Facebook/Twitter! Thanks!
All contents are copyrighted by Alex From Down Under

Do children still have nursery rhymes sung to them? Whenever I look at young children’s books, or watch the strange tv programmes they now have I wonder whether nursery rhymes ever appear. Thankfully my children missed the Teletubbies… not that I’m against programmes which have no understandable language – I adore the Clangers for example!

Nursery rhymes conjured such lovely pictures, even without having little books to look at. I always could imagine naughty Little Boy Blue snoozing away instead of looking after his sheep; I always imagined him with blond curly hair because that’s how I thought of naughty children when I was little. I could imagine the sheep and cows munching away, pleased to be in the wrong field, while the boy’s horn remained silent. His horn was another mysterious thing, it seemed so wonderful for a boy to have such a thing.

Humpty Dumpty, that great round thing looking down disdainfully before he fell… and then the gallant King’s soldiers and men, dressed in their wonderful uniforms and able to do anything, except put Humpty together again. Then there were the other lot of soldiers, ten thousand of them – and I could really see these brave men slogging up and down hills at the command of the Grand Old Duke of York.

Mary, the ultimate naught girl… whatever contrary meant, I wanted to be it… although I wasn’t necessarily so keen on the silver bells and pretty maids, but I had dug, cooked and eaten cockles with my Dad on Norfolk beaches, so I liked the idea of the cockle shells. Was she the same Mary who had a little lamb? I thought not, because although I was too young for comics I did sometimes see my cousin Jackie’s comics and read the story of the Four Marys at their boarding school, Mary Simpson, Mary Radleigh, Mary Cotter and Mary Field.

Perhaps Mary who had the little lamb was friendly with Little Bo-Peep… and silly Jack and Jill, I was never very keen on them, maybe I didn’t like the picture of them in my little nursery rhyme book. Jack was always skinny and weedy looking unlike Little Jack Horner who was definitely on the chubby side and sneaky and greedy. Jack is such a popular name now, but when I was young I didn’t know anyone my age called that, although my father had friends who were.

______________________________

135 years ago, on 21 November 1877, the world learned about a stunning American invention by Thomas Edison… a device that let you record and play back sound. The phonograph immediately made its inventor famous, and even Edison himself couldn’t believe his luck, saying, “I’m always afraid of things that work right the first time”. The first phonograph cylinder was made of foil, and playback was by means of a moving needle. The cylinder rotated against the needle, which resulted in audio playback. The first words recorded and reproduced on the miracle device was an excerpt from a children’s song, Mary Had a Little Lamb. Edison himself wrote out a list of ten major applications for the phonograph. In particular, Edison wanted to create talking books for the blind, make discs to teach public speaking and for music boxes, clocks, and talking toys, and to use the phonograph to record music, the voices of family members, and the speeches of great men.

21 November 2012

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/infographics/20121121/177638645.html

Thanksgiving Day Greetings!

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God… I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.

Abraham Lincoln, October 3, 1863.

Fun fact: Sarah Josepha Hale, editor and writer of “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” campaigned for a national day of thanksgiving. She wrote a letter to Abraham Lincoln on September 28, 1863, which apparently worked. Yay!

Have a fantastic Thanksgiving!

-Emily

The American inventor announces his invention of the phonograph, a way to record and play back sound.

Thomas Edison and the Phonograph

Edison stumbled on one of his great inventions–the phonograph–while working on a way to record telephone communication at his laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey. His work led him to experiment with a stylus on a tinfoil cylinder, which, to his surprise, played back the short song he had recorded, “MARY HAD A LITTLE LAMB“. Public demonstrations of the phonograph made the Yankee inventor world famous, and he was dubbed the “Wizard of Menlo Park.”

Edison set aside this invention in 1878 to work on the incandescent light bulb, and other inventors moved forward to improve on the phonograph. In 1887, Edison resumed work on the device, using the wax-cylinder technique developed by Charles Tainter. Although initially used as a dictating machine, the phonograph proved to be a popular tool for entertainment, and in 1906 Edison unveiled a series of musical and theatrical selections to the public through his National Phonograph Company. Continuing to improve on models and cylinders over the years, the Edison Disc Phonograph debuted in 1912 with the aim of competing in the popular record market. Edison’s discs offered superior sound quality but were not compatible with other popular disc players.

During the 1920s, the early record business suffered with the growth of radio, and in 1929 recording production at Edison ceased forever. Edison, who acquired an astounding 1,093 patents in his 84 years, died in 1931.

Thomas Edison became famous for many of his inventions, but the first one that caught on was the phonograph.  Edison announced the development of the sound recording device on November 21st, 1877.  His machine could both record sound on a metal cylinder and play it back.  Edison discovered that the phonograph worked when he recorded “Mary had a little lamb…”

The phonograph eventually led to other recording devices, such as the VCR.  No doubt, video recorders all over the U.S. were being used on November 21st, 1980, to tape the season premiere of “Dallas.”  It was the first new episode in eight months, since the cliffhanger episode in which bad guy J.R. Ewing was shot and wounded by an offscreen attacker.  The answer to the popular question “Who shot J.R.?” was…his mistress Kristin Shepard, played by Mary Crosby.  That night, “Dallas” set an American ratings record, broken three years later by the last episode of “M*A*S*H.”

“Dallas” was still on the air in 1989 when quarterback Troy Aikman joined the Dallas Cowboys.  He spent his entire NFL career with the Cowboys, leading them to three Super Bowl titles in four years.  Aikman was born November 21st, 1966.