In Philadelphia, the Rocky Horror Picture Show (film) became a cult classic among the LGBT community (I know I left out some letters) and played for something like 20 years of consecutive Saturday nights at midnight at the Theater of the Living Arts (1976 to 1995). Audiences were encouraged to dress up as one of the characters.Here’s our Halloween night music starter.
I was originally going to put up a pre-election post on current electoral “abnormalities” such as voter suppression, the money = speech nonsense, and . . . well, you know. Problem is, I couldn’t find the time in the last few days to pen a 5000 page book. So . . .
I checked my email instead and noticed a fresh one from my old college buddy-now-turned-wildlife-photographer Denny Green with subject line “Rattlers.” Following a quick peek at the attachments, my focus immediately shifted from “human” political snakes to the real thing.
And wouldn’t you know, the photo perusal wound up reminding me of another old friend, a retired educator-become-poet who called himself Grandpa Tucker, a gifted gentleman who spent his last few years working with middle school children and helping them gain an appreciation of poetry AND in the process, an understanding of life as well. He spent a year or two interfacing with a 7th grade class (in another state) via the internet, via email. He wrote an entire book of poetry in the process, including more than a dozen long story poems that featured the hero — a special critter named Sammy Snake. Sammy was one of the good guys, a snake with an attitude that, for some mysterious reason, meshed with the collection of attitudes commonly attributed to seventh graders. 😀
Anyway, to make a long story short, several Denny Green photos of a cool and calm Arizona Mojave Rattlesnake quickly merged with those poetic Sammy Snake ramblings by the one and only Bob Tucker. I’ll not try to cover the entire scope of Sammy here, but I thought it might be fun to mix up a few of Denny’s photos with a handful of verses from the first of Grandpa Tucker’s Sammy Snake poems.
SAMMY SNAKE
Sammy Snake had a dozen brothers,
But he just wasn’t like the others.
They were nice and crawled real straight,
While Sammy moved like the figure eight.
Sammy was a problem child
Whose wiggle waggled kinda wild.
This little guy rejoiced in seeing
A badly frightened human being
Once in a while, for stuff to do,
He’d hide in some girl’s empty shoe.
When she looked in, he’d holler, “BOO!”
Sometime he scared old ladies, too.
One time in church, he went in late,
Hid out in the collection plate.
And as they passed it down the aisle,
He flicked his tongue and hissed a smile. [. . .]
That’s how the poem begins; it continues for another 18 verses, then concludes with these final thoughts:
He changed and lived “The Golden Rule,”
And tried his best to learn in school.
Then earned a Smart Old Snake Degree,
At Wiggle University.
His article, “Be Nice, Not Mean,”
Appeared in Playboa Magazine.
Sammy had reformed, it’s clear,
Was voted “Serpent of the Year.”
So, all you other little snakes,
Be good, no matter what it takes.
No one’s perfect, but believe,
It just gets worse if you deceive.
So live a life that’s good and true,
Make other snakes believe in you,
And you’ll be doing what it takes
To fill the world with happy snakes.
(See Below) 😀
I can’t help but think it’d be a grand thing if our politicians could somehow elevate themselves to reflect the forthrightness of a Mojave Rattler with the intellectual acuity of Sammy Snake. But then, well, you know . . .
OPEN THREAD
Note: Photos © Denny Green, Tempe AZ; Sammy Snake poem excerpts from Grandpa Tucker’s Rhymes & Tales (1999), ISBM 1-929146-00-0, by the late Bob Tucker; R.I.P.
I love dancing so I found this video to be fun to watch. Besides, dancing is excellent exercise. I present “Tap vs Irish Dance”.
This is our Open Thread. Speak up and be happy.
Why do we learn history?
So we can learn from the mistakes of the past.
But which history will teach us that? The history I learned in grammer school was contradicted by the history I learned in high school, and when I got to college, it was like everything I learned was a lie.
‘Tis true. The history they teach in school is little more than a fantasy with some real names, dates and places thrown in to make it sound real. But grownups feel that young children should be protected from the harsh realities of what really happened. I mean, imagine how upset you would have been to learn that we wiped out tens of thousands of Indians by giving them small-pox infected blankets.
Yeah, I guess you’re right. I mean, I would have thought we killed Pochohantas. But what about something more recent?
Like what?
Like Black Tuesday. The Stock Market crash. The causes of the Great Depression. Now we’re told it was organized labor and high taxes on the job creators that tanked the global economy back then.
Ok, son, it’s time you learned how history works. There’s history, what really happened, and there’s history, what the people in power want you to believe happened.
How do we know the difference?
Do something most people are unwilling to do: Research. Read. Go to original sources. The ruling class learned something 85 years ago. They learned that they needed even more power over the government. And they, slowly but surely, got it. So, this time, when they crashed the economy, they made sure they were well taken care of. They learned from history, and took steps to avoid losing their fortunes this time around. The common man, the masses content to accept the history the ruling class taught them, did not learn, and paid the price this time, too.
OPEN THREAD
Holy Sh!t. Stop the Fracking!
Natural gas is supposed to be the bridge between fossil fuels and alternative energy (solar wind, tidal…). Here’s a study that suggests that burning gas will not decelerate climate change.
I don’t normally click on any of those groups of six ads that seem to be unavoidable on most websites, but when I saw the following photo, I just HAD to:
Horse or Zebra?
Brown Striped Zebra (Zebra Erythrism)
Pink Dragonfly
Four Shades of Tiger
Half-white Peacock
Pink Grasshopper (sounds like a drink!)
Enjoy the rest of the slide show. I did!
This is our daily open thread – feel free to discuss whatever you want.
I’ve heard every single one of these obnoxious questions/observations — most of them from certain family members.
Being an admitted atheist is a fairly recent development in my life — the last 10 years, or so — mostly because religion, for many years of my life, was simply a non-thing. I just didn’t care either way. *shrug*
My family attended church and Sunday school when I was a child; it was just something we did. I tried to believe in God and Jesus, but even as a young child, I just couldn’t make myself believe it. I mean, come on, the whole concept was just so unlikely.
One Sunday, while I was enjoying the most interesting part of church — juice and cookies afterwards — I heard an older man was talking about the joy of feeling the presence of Jesus in every part of his daily life, and I remember thinking that he looked kind of dazed and sounded so child-like. It felt really uncomfortable, since I was about 10 years old at the time.
Religion has begun to worm its way into our everyday lives, whether we want it or not, and it’s just not okay. In fact, it’s destructive to the secular world, as well as to religion. It’s not the American way, and openly saying that I am an atheist (feminist/Liberal/Socialist, etc) is a way of saying “NO, this has gone too far. Get a fucking grip, people.”
This is our daily open thread — Discuss this topic or whatever.
