Saturday, October 11, 2014

I got the horse right here, the name is Paul Revere

Because my last two posts (the stage-name quiz and the answers) dealt mostly with people in theater, I decided to use the headings “Guys” and “Dolls” for the two lists. Clever, eh, wot? *bows to receive applause from adoring public.

That reminded me that when Mrs. RWP and I went to a Red Lobster Restaurant for the first time many years ago, we giggled that instead of the words “Men” and “Women” on the rest room doors the signs read “Buoys” and “Gulls” -- I know. We are easily amused.

And that reminded me that at an elementary school in Kansas this week, the administration instructed the teachers not to call the children “boys” and “girls” any more, but “Purple Penguins” instead. I’m presuming the school mascot for team sports is a purple penguin, but it could be a saber-toothed tiger for all I know.

And that reminded me of what radio-personality Garrison Keillor has said for years is his favorite joke: One penguin says to another, “You look like you’re wearing a tuxedo” and the second penguin replies, “What makes you think I’m not?”

Pa-dum-dum. Rim shot on the snare drum. With a cymbal crash afterward.

Hey, folks, it’s Saturday morning and I can do only so much.

Blog reading is like betting on a horse race. You go with your heart and you take your chances.

Can do. Can do. (1:32)

5 comments:

  1. Paul Revere. Was he the man that road a horse somewhere to somewhere else during a dispute your country had over being united.

    Don't worry I'll look it up.

    What is this all about?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Adrian, thanks for your comment. I will try to explain.

    When you say "a dispute your country had over being united" I think you are referring to our American Civil War (North vs. South) of 1861-1865. This post has nothing to do with that.

    If I remember history correctly, Paul Revere rode from Lexington, Massachusetts, to Concord, Massachusetts, on the night of April 18, 1775, when he saw two lanterns lit in the tower of Old North Church in Boston, indicating that the British had invaded by sea, not land . Our poet Longfellow commemorated this in his famous poem "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere" -- the applicable lines are "One if by land, and two if by sea, and I on the opposite shore will be, ready to ride and raise the alarm to every Middlesex village and farm" etc. etc. This post also has nothing to do with that.

    The post's title is the first line of the first song, "Fugue for Tinhorns", in the theatrical musical Guys and Dolls that opened on Broadway in 1950 and ran for 1200 performances. It also ran in London. Since I mentioned "Guys" and "Dolls" in the body of the post (and the two previous posts as well), I used the opening lyrics from the play for the title and hoped readers would make the connection. I guess some will and some won't.

    If you don't know that song, click on the link at the bottom of the post to hear the version from the film version that starred Marlon Brandon, Frank Sinatra, Jean Simmons, and Vivian Blaine in 1955. Guys and Dolls is based on several short stories by the American writer Damon Runyon.

    Perhaps I was being a bit oblique.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Many thanks. Paul Revere was on your side.
    Who tipped the tea into Boston harbour?
    That was naughty. Was it Paul. Perhaps not, his horse would have been too tired.
    No matter I like you lot as you have bailed us out when the Germans were out of order; twice. I bet we are still paying you for lease lend but you had the good grace to sacrifice young men for free.
    I just wish you could abolish the death penalty. It really isn't nice no matter how revolting the crime.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Adrian, as a matter of fact, Paul Revere did participate in the Boston Tea Party as a member of a group called the Sons of Liberty, but that happened in December 1773, some 16 months before his famous midnight ride in April 1775. Thank you for asking. I could find no information about his horse, however.

    ReplyDelete
  5. "Rim shot on the snare drum. With a cymbal crash afterward." ...followed by a plaintive "wah-wah, wah-wah-wah-wah!" on the crybaby pedal.

    ReplyDelete

<b>Always true to you, darlin’, in my fashion</b>

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