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#122175 02/06/04 02:12 PM
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One of my favorite bloggers is putting together a collection of obnoxious schoolyard rhymes from around the world, like

Baby, baby
Stick your head in gravy
Wash it out with bubble gum
and send it to the Navy

I though with our diverse collection of nations and cultures represented we could surely come up with a few for him. The collection is archived at:
http://www.thesneeze.com/mt-archives/cat_global_schoolyard_rhyme_project.html

One of my favorites so far is from Japan:

Tan-Tan-Tanuki no kintama wa
Kaze mo nai no ni
Bura bura bura

English Translation:

The Fox-Fox-Foxdog's testicles are
Despite there being no wind blowing,
Swaying, swaying, swaying.



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Flat,
belMarduk started a thread a long time ago, during your hiatus, asking us to post the rhymes and songs we remember from childhood. I think it was in Miscellany, maybe you or one of our brilliant searchers here could find it and bring it back up to the top. There you might find some appropriate for your friend's site.

PS love the Japanese one!


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Thanks, Anna. I've lazarized the thread you mentioned, but it's not exactly what I'm looking for. The rhymes in that thread are more of the hand-clapping/jump-roping style, while the Global Schoolyard Rhymes Project is about the more mean-spirited taunting rhymes that I suspect we all were subjected/subjected others to at one time or another.


#122178 02/06/04 03:20 PM
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Tanuki

Tanuki is a canid and usually called a raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides). They exist in eastern Europe and China and Japan. Tanuki is a trickster in Japanese folktales and is considered the patron god of restauranteurs. I saw a good mid-sized statue of him last night in the sushi bar I ate at. He is distinguished by huge testicles. Really big. 6 or 8 tatami mats big. Sometimes a thousand tatami mats (senjojiki). He likes to disguise himself as a human sometimes and buy saki from a dealer. When he disappears, after drinking, the dealer is left with some leaves he though was money.

http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/tanuki.shtml



#122179 02/06/04 03:43 PM
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[from jheem's link]In the computer game "Super Mario Brothers," when Mario gets a leaf, he gains pointy ears and the tail of a Tanuki.

OH! Now I understand. I always wondered why leaf=raccoon in that game. I guess it might not have been such a family-friendly hit if Mario had gained Tanuki's other distinguishing trait!


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A hundred year old one, to a squealer:
Tattle tale tit
Your tongue shall be split
And every dog in town
Shall have a bit of it.


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And who can forget the classic:

Nyah-nyah-nya-nya-nyah-nyaah!

to the tune of the same name.


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A silly one from Cape Cod:
Red.Red!
Wet the bed.
Wipe it up
With ginger bread!


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Courtesy of my son, who apparently didn't realize that he needed to change the sexes around:

Girls go to college to get more knowledge;
Boys go to Jupiter to get more stupider.



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From my childhood in the Ozark Mountains:

What's your name
Puddin' tain (sp?)
Ask me again
and I'll tell you the same.

And there was [first name here]
Swinging on the outhouse door
Without her nightie
Swinging on the outhouse door
and there was [second name here]
tellin' her to swing some more.



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