To Market

To Market, To Market, To buy a Fat Pig
Home again, Home again, Jiggety-Jigg

To Market, To Market, To Buy a Fat Hog
Home again, Home again, Jiggety-Jogg

To Market, To Market, To Buy a Plum Bun
Home again, Home again, Market Is Done

This is Nora's favorite nursery rhyme right now (along with Baa Baa Black Sheep, which must be recited at top speed). She tends to substitute Dog for Hog and Jog, and she leave off the last verse but that's to be expected.

Anyway, my point about markets is that the Tower Grover Farmers Market opens May 10 with their big celebration. Since it's after the giant, monster conference I'm planning, I'm looking forward to it. Mark Your Calendars!

Mourning the Muppet Show still, but at least we have this....

Anyone who has a had a child in the past few years, is probably familiar with Sandra Boynton, illustrator and author of a band of animals who wear pajamas, dance, and play together nicely across the pages of rhyming board books. Those of you without kids, have no doubt seen her characters on greeting cards and other such products. The books withstand multiple readings and I've yet to tire of them after almost two years. But not everyone may be aware that she is also behind several CD and book sets as well. Nora has received two of these from my aunt and while we were initially hesitant to put it on (children's music isn't always a something adults want to listen to), one of these has become a standard in our ipod playlist. Jason and I have been known to spend days singing the Rhinoceros Tap songbook, especially So Long Doggies Goodbye, Oh What a Crab, and These Little Piggies and not mind a bit. It works both as Nora entertainment but also a hilarious send up of showtunes. The second CD/book, Philadelphia Chickens, featured a conglomerate of artists I've heard of but never really were into and despite a 2003 Grammy nomination (thanks Wikipedia), it never seemed to take off with us, maybe we just weren't willing to give it a chance (Scott Bakula has a song on it and I still can't get over the stink of Enterprise) But last month, as part of Nora's Christmas gifts, I picked up Dog Train (yes the name made me buy it). It had a similar conglomerate of artists (those Bacon Brothers again), but I also couldn't resist the Weird Al Yankovic / Kate Winslet duet, I need a Nap. Jason couldn't wait for Christmas and popped it in tonight, possibly to distract Nora from her cold/croup that she's suffering with. We have not been disappointed. Weird Al and Kate were fabulous, Five For Fighting made us smile with Penguin Lament, Alison Krauss mesmerized us again with her lullaby, Evermore, but what stole the CD for us was the 3 part Cow Planet by Billy J Kramer. For one brief moment it was as if David Bowie was on the Muppet Show with Lenord Nemoy. If I ever got motivated and posted a Christmas shopping guide for parents, this and Rhino Tap would top the list. It's a must if you've got children under 5 and it might even make your Christmas list even if you don't have kids. Now I'm going to have to give those Chickens another chance.

Fractured Fables

I read the first in the Fables series a couple of months ago, on the recommendation of some members of an on-line discussion group for librarians who love graphic novels. And I thought it was great fun. It's a comic book (now collected in to paperbacks) about fractured fairytales - a theme I love. Fables gives us our fairytales that we know and love so well, and has brought them to our world when an army of goblins under the control of the mysterious Authority has ransacked their lands. Fables tells us how they've been getting along after the "happily ever after".

So I shelved it mentally with all of my other favorites in this area - the Gregory Maguire books, Jasper Fforde's Nursery Crime books, Jon Scieszka's True Story of the Three Little Pigs, and perhaps the original- Rocky and Bullwinkle's Fractured Fairytales. I was interested enough to buy the third in the series, but I passed over the second, due to the reviews. But now I'm hooked. Bill Willingham keeps peeling back layer and layer to these stories. Just when you think you know all about Snow White and Prince Charming he changes thing up. You say okay, I can deal with that and then he does it again. I'm all out of order in the series, but I'm trying to catch up - I've got the second book on request at the library and I've already read a backstory that is making me totally rethink what all happened in the third book, and I sense that I'm going to have to plunk down the cash for the rest of the series since the library only has 1, 2, and the below pictured backstory volume, 1001 Nights of Snowfall, which uses a variety of artists - some absolutely amazing.
One last note, like the original fairy tales - these aren't necessarily appropriate for children, so don't plan on buying the set for any kiddies in your orbit.

Sharing

I've decided to actually tell folks about this blog. I did a mini-release Friday, with Tree and Jason, and they were nice enough to comment, which has encouraged me to post more and to direct others here. Of course you may not stop by, but if you do and you are curious, the title for this comes from this old nursery rhyme for counting magpies:

One for Sorrow
Two For Joy
Three for a Letter
Four for a Boy
Five for Silver
Six for Gold
Seven for a Secret Never to Be Told

There are several other versions also:

One for sorrow
Two for mirth
Three for a wedding
Four for a birth
Five for rich
Six for poor
Seven for a witch
I can tell you no more.

or


One for sorrow
Two for mirth,
Three for a wedding
Four for a birth,
Five for silver
Six for gold,
Seven for a secret not to be told.

Eight for heaven
Nine for hell,
And ten for the devil's own sel'.

Or more commonly:
One for sorrow, two for joy;

Three for a girl, four for a boy;

Five for silver, six for gold;

Seven for a secret, never to be told;

Eight for a wish, nine for a kiss;

Ten for a bird that's best to miss.

Miss Lucy

I've been looking at old rhymes and nursery stories lately and I ran across this website devoted to street games.

In the discussions I found this which brought back a lot of memories:

Miss Lucy had a steamboat, the steamboat had a bell, Miss Lucy went to heaven, and the steamboat went to
HELLO operator, give me number 9 and if you disconnect me I will chop off your behind
BEHIND the refridgerator, there was a piece of glass, Miss Lucy sat upon it and it went right up her...
ASK me no more questions, tell me no more lies, the boys are in the bathroom pulling down their flies
FLIES are in the meadow, the bees are in the park, the boys and girls are kissing in the
dark-dark-dark

They also had this version as well as multiple variations on both:

Miss Lucy had a baby.
She named it Tiny Tim.
She put it in the bathtub to see if it could swim.
It drank up all the water.
It ate up all the soap.
It tried to eat the bathtub but it wouldn't go down it's throat.
Miss Lucy called the doctor.
Miss Lucy called the nurse.
Miss Lucy called the lady with the alligator purse.
Mumps! said the doctor.
Measles! said the nurse.
Chicken pox! said the lady with the alligator purse.
Get out you crazy doctor.
Get out you crazy nurse.
Get out you crazy lady with the alligator purse.

I knew only parts of these as a child, or at least I don't remember the whole thing or they get swirled together as a mix of rhymes. I don't know if it is my faulty memory or if we had some variation that combined bits and pieces of rhymes that were popular in other regions and other times.

I learned these from other girls in the neighborhood and at school, but from the postings, it's clear they had been around for several decades. Did other mothers teach them to thier children? Or older siblings? How were they passed down? Maybe I need to teach them to Nora.

Say, say, oh Playmate
Come out and play with me
And with my dollies three
Climb up my apple tree
Slide down my rainbow
Into my pot of gold
And we'll be jolly friends
Forever more, more, more-more-more