New verses to “My Darling Clementine”
Ever since we bought some delicious clementines at the farmer's market, I've been composing new verses to "
Oh My Darling, Clementine." She dies of a new accident in each one. It's easier to make up new verses to songs I half remember than it is to hunt down the real words and memorize them.
She took some powder for the muskets
and made some biscuits in a pan.
She put the biscuits on the fire.
Now my darling's in Japan.
Chorus: Oh my darling, oh my darling,
Oh my darling, Clementine!
Thou art lost and gone forever
Dreadful sorry, Clementine
She took a charge down into the mine shaft
so that she could make it blow.
The fuse was fast and getting faster.
Oh, my darling, she was slow.
(chorus)
She took an axe and took a hatchet
and cut some lumber for the mine.
She was killed by timber last December
Oh, my darlin' Clementine.
(chorus)
Chased the cattle from the garden
and up into the trees.
My darlin' was made a bookmark
By a Holstein and falling leaves.
(chorus)
Found a rattle on the prairie.
She wrapped and tied it in a case.
She gave her boy the pretty present.
He got two fangs stuck in his face
How do you pronounce “both”? Please take the survey!
Do you pronounce the word "both" differently from other English-speakers?
Take the survey and tell others about it. The more respondents we get, the more we'll know.
Garbanzos or chickpeas?
Which term do you use: garbanzo bean or chickpea?
The survey is here.
Buzzwords of 2009 in the New York Times
My
annual buzzwords of the year piece for the New York Times has appeared today, featuring expressions such as
aporkalypse,
swine flu party,
El Stiffo,
Octomom, and
sexting. Also, there's a
discussion going on about them on the New York Times Ideas blog, where you can leave your own comments about my choices, or give your own buzzword of the year.
A note found inside Birds of the Pacific Coast
Recently I bought a copy of
Birds of the Pacific Coast by William Ayres Eliot at
B Street Books in San Mateo.
It is a charming book, filled with color plates (which you can see
here) and interesting tidbits, but I bought it because it contained this handwritten letter inserted in its pages:
.
It says this:
"Those bird watchers who first spotted the two white Crested Laughing Thrushes from Southeast Asia may want to know they're big (and loud) on Russian Hill, hanging out in Louis Petri's lush property and being fed by the fancy likes of Elinor Chatfield-Taylor and Mary Keesling. Noisy devils, but amusing — The birds, I mean. The feathered ones — that is... Heckwithit—"
The two women were stars of the San Francisco social scene in the 1950s and perhaps later. Louis Petri was a wine magnate.
The letter was probably written after 1948, which is when, according to the
obituary linked above, Elinor Chatfield-Taylor moved to San Francisco.
The book is inscribed with the name "Vera Gillett" on the flyleaf, but I could turn up no one by the name who might obviously be connected to the big names above.
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