I just used the "file" icon because I thought, at first, that it read "fire"--and "fire" was pretty close to fireworks. Oh, well.
Anyway, happy July 4th to everybody in the USA! I understand that lots of places, due to forest fire hazards, are going to have illuminated water shows instead. That seems to be a pretty good Plan B to me!
Best regards,
Wordwind
Well, considering I have a US passport I should stand and sing the national anthem on this of all days.
Slight problem - I dunno the words! Only learnt the words to the Oz anthem a couple of years ago!
stales
WW:
Yes. And this Independence Day is very special to me. Yesterday afternoon I learned that the agency I work for is downsizing its Denver office, so they announced a retirement incentive to get people to retire. So I am getting (almost certainly) an extra $25,000 payment to retire at the end of September, something I was going to do anyway.
That's enough to pay off the car loan on Peggy's new Jeep, so I won;t even have to take a part-time job. How's that for independent?
Starting in September I'm gong to be out in the garage almost full time, turning expensive wood into sawdust and furniture. I have just about completed a cherry bed in twin size for my 4 year old and Theo, who's six, wants me to build one for him.
And for those of you who are wondering why I am back posting here:
I truly believe that we are now free of our problem person. I have refrained from posting because of the ongoing unpleasantness, but I think we can now put paid to that whole chapter.
Happy Birthday, USA!!!
TEd
Ted:
Congratulations on your good news! For some reason I think of this lyrical phrase:
How many chucks could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
Beaver regards,
Woodwind
** Have a Jolly Fab Independence Day ** former subjects.
- oh, and good riddance!
Oh thank you so much fishonabike,
but the pleasure of our riddance is all ours. -
-
Bye-[the]-Bye Fish, did you ever thank we yanks for keeping the krauts out of Buckingham Palace during WW 2?
No no silly, I'm not asking for repayment of your war debts,
but a simple thank-you card on the Fourth of July might be nice. -
I'm reminded of the story in Raaders' Digest about an Englishman flying
across US, admiring the scenery and exclaiming: "God damn George III!"
did you ever thank we yanks for keeping the krauts out of Buckingham Palace during WW 2?Whaddya mean, keep 'em out?
They were already in there!
nothing subtle about this, folks - the Royal Family is essentially Germana simple thank-you card on the Fourth of July might be niceOK.
Thank you for getting out of our hair!
This is starting to sound familiar... ah, here we go:
http://wordsmith.org/board/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=wordplay&Number=8436Seriously, though (very momentarily) - as regards WWII we remember and respect
all the fallen on Remembrance Day. Interestingly enough, remembrance (of those who have died for the freedoms we cherish)is also very closely tied in with our own firework extravaganza, Nov 5th. Pretty good stuff from a USn perspective here:
http://www.bcpl.net/~cbladey/guy/html/center.htmlwith a concise "why it matters" statement a little bit down the page (click on
Our Purpose)
Long may your fires burn bright, friends.
Someone up there wondered about the words to the national anthem (USA), so I'll write them out here from memory:
Oh, say, can you see
by the dawn's early light
what so proudly we hailed
at the twilight's last gleaming,
whose broad stripes and bright stars
through the perilous fight
o'er the ramparts we watched
were so gallantly streaming.
And the rockets' red glare,
the bombs bursting in air,
gave proof through the night
that our flag was still there.
Oh, say, does that star-spangled
banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free,
and the home of the brave.
Excuse punctuation errors, and also the fact that I don't include the other verses because I don't know them by heart.
I understand that the melody came from a British drinking song, which makes no sense to me because the melody is fairly challenging to sing well, and I cannot imagine a bunch of drunks singing it without sounding like a pack of howling hounds.
Banner regards,
WordWashington
God Bless Your Heart Geoff!
a) for being back on da board and
b) for calling it "Canada's Dominion Day" - hurrah! I call it "Dominion Day" - find "Canada Day" soooo insipid. Youse guys get "Independence Day" - why can't we continue to call ours "Dominion Day"? more poetic, more majestic, and them bad-ass politicos is the only ones who decided it would change. We wuz never ast.
Dominon Day ROCKS!
dang, how do people have the patience to change the colour on the letters all the way through a phrase/sentence? it takes for-freakin'-ever!
Let us go in peace to love and serve the board.
I understand that the melody came from a British drinking songVoila:
http://www.bcpl.net/~etowner/anacreon.htmlno sense to me because the melody is fairly challenging to sing well, and I cannot imagine a bunch of drunks singing it without sounding like a pack of howling houndsA few drinks make you sing better, as any Irish(wo)man will tell you (Helen?
). It's only when you've
really overdone it that you start sounding better to your own ears than you actually sound. And really then it's more a matter of not giving a fig.
Nothing wrong with the odd howl. Where would the Blues be without 'em?
I read somewhere the music is from Brit drinking song "To Anacreon in Heaven."
And lyrics were written by an Hispanic, because first line is "Oh, José, can you see?"
Ted, it's so good to see you're back. I look forward to reading the punny posts of yores. Happy Independence day, indeed!
Thanks, Fish! Do you drink like one when singing this song? I must paste the lyric from the first verse below from the site you provided:
To Anacreon in Heaven, where he fat in full glee,
A few fons of Harmony fent a petition,
That He their Infpirer and Patron would be;
When this anfwer arrived from the Jolly Old Grecian
"Voice, Fiddle, and Flute,
"no longer be mute,
"I'll lend you my Name and infpire you to boot,
"And, befides, I'll infruct you like me to entwine
"The Myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's Vine.
The person who wrote these lyrics was obviously intoxicated! Consider a couple of those spellings! [I know, I know, already. Spare me the writing lesson! It's more fun to think the scriber was drunk!]
Bacchus regards,
WordWoozie
You know, Ted--your sawdust and all.
Sheesh! [exasperation-e]
Thanks, Fish! Do you drink like one when singing this song?Any excuse
Actually I reckon it's one of those songs that's
meant to be difficult to sing, thus resulting in an ever-increasing number of alcoholic forfeits.
A very found basis for a National Anthem if you afk me.
And the rockets' red glare,
the bombs bursting in air...
...never did figure it out: just when did the word "the" get inserted? When I was learning to sing, it wasn't.
-- Class Pedant
Dear C.P.,
I just checked three sites, and each showed the word in question: the.
Here's the whole banana from one of those sites:
Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,
O 'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming.
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
II
On the shore dimly seen, thro' the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In fully glory reflected, now shines on the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner: oh, long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
III
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has vanished out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
IV
Oh, thus be it ever when freemen shall stand.
Between their loved home and the war's desolation:
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Power that has made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just.
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust".
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
I'll check a few more sites to see whether any omit the the in question.
WW
Well, I just found a site reference showing the Mr. Key himself changed the words from time to time:
Immediately popular, it remained just one of several patriotic airs until it was finally adopted as the national anthem on March 3, 1931. But the actual words were not included in the legal documents. Key himself had written several versions with slight variations so discrepancies in the exact wording still occur. http://www.ecwa.asn.au/info/lyrics.html#TheEdit: I just changed my spelling to the correct spelling of Key. Not that anybody except Wof and I care...
At issue would be, on what date was the "current information" obtained? The time I'm referring to is a good fifty years ago, and I recognize that evolution may well have occurred in the interval...
but as Class Pedant I still say the gratuitous "the" is wrong.What did Francis Scott Key write?
edit: your post came before my reply
Okey, doke. Here's some more history retrieved from the web:
On September 13, 1814, Francis Scott Key visited the British fleet in Chesapeake Bay to secure the release of Dr. William Beans, who had been captured after the burning of Washington, D.C. The release was secured, but Key was detained on ship overnight during the shelling of Fort McHenry, one of the forts defending Baltimore. In the morning he was so delighted to see the American flag still flying over the fort that he began a poem to commemorate the occasion. Entitled "The Star-Spangled Banner," the poem soon attained wide popularity as sung to the tune "Ancreon in Heaven." The origin of this tune is obscure, but it may have been written by John Stafford Smith, a British composer born in 1750. "The Star-Spangled Banner" was officially made the National Anthem by Congress in 1931, although already adopted as such by the Army and Navy.
http://www.il.ngb.army.mil/museum2/flag/anthem.htmI'm going back and editing my spelling of "Keye"--but I'm not gonna drop the "fox," since he changed the lyric!
about the gratuitous "the", it's not until the last two lines of the melody that any syllable uses more than one pitch. it is entirely non-melismatic until those last two lines, so perhaps it just makes it easier to sing, especially for untrained voices.
just a thought.
I honestly don't think the the in question is gratuitous, and not even superfluous. And the first word, Oh, is one syllable and is sung with two pitches anyway, not one. Still, your theory is a good one, even throwing "Oh" out of the argument, especially if the first versions never contained the the in question. So far, every version I've found online includes that word that I'm fast becoming sick of referring to!
Best regards,
WW
I would be interested in seeing a version in which the the in question had been omitted or hadn't appeared in the first place, but, based on what I read today, it sounds as though several versions circulated all springing forth from the head of Mr. Key.
the whole dang thing seems to scan very strangely (IMO) but then I can't sing it, so perhaps the problem lies avec moi....! We Canajuns cain't talk, anyway - our national anthem sounds like a dirge (except when arranged and sung by my fave Kingston group, Night Sun - excellent!). I often wish ours could be "The Maple Leaf Forever" - a rather more jaunty tune....
Let us go in peace to love and serve the board.
d'oh! I missed the 'Oh"!
and you're right about the non-gratuity of the the word, don't know why that particular adj popped into my head...
I would find it strange to sing it without the the...
good 'ole
the
Syllables. Doesn't anyone count syllables anymore?
Listen.
And the rockets red glare. (six syllables. Add--> "rockets red glaring" an arcane image even unto today.)
And the bombs bursting in air, (Clear image but seven syllables)
The word "and" was needed as a mnemonic but had to go, so "the" was left to supply the requisite syllable. But when singing, without the mnemonic "and", people forgot the line and so paused until some smart fellow said "the
Bombs ...". More and more people waited to hear "bombs" and so by default the "the" was eventually left out. Leaving one pause and five syllables.
That odd conditioned pause is what wof's ears remember.
I think,
milo.
our national anthem sounds like a dirge (except when arranged and sung by my fave Kingston group, Night Sun - excellent!). I often wish ours could be "The Maple Leaf Forever" I reckon a lot of Brits would prefer
Jerusalem to
God Save The Queen as a National Anthem. It's a fantastic tune, especially with full organ arrangement, and has excellent inspirational words.
Good 'Ol William Blake
Though I suppose GSTQ is really just a bit crap rather than totally appalling - and it does have a good "lift" at the end, albeit a pale shadow of
Jerusalem's.
Oh how good to breathe the pure clear air. Now, who can I have an argument with in peace?
>I reckon a lot of Brits would prefer Jerusalem
True but there is a slight problem with the title. Now if it were changed to "Oh Neasden" or "Manchester" it would work much better.
if it were changed to "Oh Neasden" or "Manchester" it would work much betterWell they're certainly
dark satanic mills (dody,
you should be taking great exception at Manchester being placed in the same context as Neasden
)
Is it really true that there are more people in DC than in Wyoming? Amazing, if true. And the DC people really should have a vote in Congress. Good grief. Ditto to "Amazing" again.
WW
In reply to:
and it does have a good "lift" at the end,
Watching the Copa Mundial, I was flabbergasted by the length of the Italian national anthem. It seemed to go on forever, or at least for a fraction longer than it would take to read La Divina Commedia aloud. No wonder the team did so badly, they were out of breath from singing their anthem. God Save the Queen has the great virtue of being short.
Italian anthemThat would explain much. Our most popular pop singer came to Korea esp. to sing the anthem. What she actually did sing I have no idea, but the
tempo indicated she hadn't had a Lucozade (see
http://wordsmith.org/board/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=announcements&Number=75331&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&vc=1#Post75331) for days. The team didn't know how to follow the words and they did what we call 'fish-style' singing (opening and closing your mouth without actually making any sound). 2 billion people watched.
She (the singer) was banned after Korea beat us 2:0..
That didn't help as Portugal scored 4...
Do you remember how it went with the USA?
Didn't help much, though...
Do you remember how it went with the USA?What, against the Poles? Well, the Poles were famously slaughtered by
everyone, weren't they?
Can't quite remember the result of that one. No, I
must be getting the numbers the wrong way around...
(USA only eventually beaten by the 2nd best team in this World Cup, mind
C'mon guys, we don't want you good at
another sport..)
the Italian national anthem. It seemed to go on forever...God Save the Queen has the great virtue of being short.A very good point, Vernon (pleased to meet you BTW
).
We should get a league table of National Anthems together, marked on length, catchiness, ease of remembering etc.
The old Siamese Nat. Anthem was good in the shortness league; just the one phrase, "Owa tana, Siam ," repeated 20 (I think) times, at increasing tempo. It has an amazing effect. Try it, out loud, and see what you think. (the "a" is pronounced "ah", BTW)
Ah, WW:
I think the WW might stand for Wayward Word this time. Yep, there are more people in DC than there are in Wyoming. And yep, they don't have a voting voice in the House and Senate (though they do get to vote for President now, which was at one time not the case.)
BUT!
Not ONE of those people was disenfranchised unwillingly. Not one of them was alive when the District was formed without representation in the Congress. They choose to live there. Each and every person in the District is free to pick up stakes and move across the state line into Virginia or Maryland if that vote is more important to them than the "prestige" of living in the nation's capital.
I'm reminded of the people who move into the flight pattern of an airport because the housing's cheaper there and then complain about the noise of planes flying over.
TEd [/rant]
Oh, really, Ted! What would happen if every single resident in the District of Columbia packed up and moved? What would be the ramifications of such a move? I can't begin to imagine. Just think about the shock people would experience in not confronting traffic in DC. Think about the flavor of the city completely lost with no traffic and confusing one-way streets not to be confused on any longer because there would be no traffic. And think about the loss of the public education system in DC! And consider how the outlying communities in Maryland and Virginia would pick up even more citizens--they're already filled to bursting point. Why, we people, out here in Dinwiddie County, might have to pick up some of the overflow. And we've only grown by about 2 people in the last century. I'm not sure we could handle a population explosion of much over half a dozen or so out here in the sticks.
So, I think we oughtta just let Washington continue to grow as it will, let its traffic situation develop into the worst in the nation, even beyond that of Boston, and give those citizens their representative vote in Congress, especially considering the Wyoming comparison, which is mind-boggling to me this morning. What's the problem with Wyoming, by the way?
Best regards,
WashingtonWins
What would happen if every single resident in the District of Columbia packed up and moved?
Will never happen. No government worker wants his boss to discover that the world will function just fine in his absence, thank you.
"Owa tana, Siam"
Interesting. I've always thought their anthem was "Owa tagu, Siam."
Are "ana" and "tagu" synonyms?
I'm reminded of the people who move into the flight pattern of an airport because the housing's cheaper there and then complain about the noise of planes flying over.and
I'm reminded, by this, of that wonderful Aussie movie,
The Castle, in which a small housing development is being compulsorily acquired by AirLink so that company can expand its shipping facilities. The neighbourhood - and one man in particular - fights this. One of the neighbours is from Lebanon, and he didn't mind the planes flying over. He had a classic line about it:
"They say the plane, they fly overhead, drop the value. In Beirut, plane fly overhead, drop bomb. Huh. I like
this plane."
Guess it's all a matter of perspective....
Let us go in peace to love and serve the board.
Rosten: You are unwelcome to post here by any name.
We thought the tune to God Save The Queen (King) was catchy too, so we put our own lyric to it :
My country 'tis of thee
Sweet land of Liberty
Of thee I sing.
Land where my Fathers died,
Land of the Pilgrim's pride,
From every mountain side,
Let freedom ring!
We had a different concept of who is the "King". See last line.
My country tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died!
Land of the Pilgrim's pride!
From every mountain side,
Let freedom ring!
My native country, thee,
Land of the noble free,
Thy name I love.
I love thy rocks and rills,
Thy woods and templed hills;
My heart with rapture fills
Like that above.
Let music swell the breeze,
And ring from all the trees
Sweet freedom's song.
Let mortal tongues awake;
Let all that breathe partake;
Let rocks their silence break,
The sound prolong.
Our father's God to, Thee,
Author of liberty,
To Thee we sing.
Long may our land be bright
With freedom's holy light;
Protect us by Thy might,
Great God, our King!
Touche!
And welcome to the board!
Oh how good to breathe the pure clear air. Now, who can I have an argument with in peace?
>I reckon a lot of Brits would prefer Jerusalem
True but there is a slight problem with the title. Now if it were changed to "Oh Neasden" or "Manchester" it would work much better.
WHAAAAT! just seen this excreble post. neasden? neasden? where the F**K is neasden when its at home? ill give you neasden, neasden My ARSE ( oh, i crack myself up sometimes
)
dodyskin, you crack myself up sometimes too!
this last post of yours - I roared!
Let us go in peace to love and serve the board.