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#98391 03/14/03 04:25 PM
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If you visit American city,
You will find it very pretty.
Just two things of which you must beware:
Don't drink the water and don't breathe the air.

Pollution, pollution,
They got smog and sewage and mud.
Turn on your tap and get hot and cold running crud.

See the halibuts and the sturgeons
Being wiped out by detergents.
Fish gotta swim and birds gotta fly,
But they don't last long if they try.

Pollution, pollution,
You can use the latest toothpaste,
And then rinse your mouth with industrial waste.

Just go out for a breath of air,
And you'll be ready for Medicare.
The city streets are really quite a thrill.
If the hoods don't get you, the monoxide will.

Pollution, pollution,
Wear a gas mask and a veil.
Then you can breathe, long as you don't inhale.

Lots of things there that you can drink,
But stay away from the kitchen sink.
Throw out your breakfast garbage, and I've got a hunch
That the folks downstream will drink it for lunch.

So go to the city, see the crazy people there.
Like lambs to the slaughter,
They're drinking the water
And breathing (cough) the air.

© Tom Lehrer. All rights reserved

#98392 03/14/03 04:32 PM
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Thank you, tsuwm. Is that from TWTWTW days?


#98393 03/14/03 09:48 PM
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Actually®, the *original was Jerome Kern's "Can't Stop Lovin' That Man of Mine" from the musical Showboat...JFTR.


#98394 03/14/03 10:37 PM
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wwh,

I must tell you every time I think of this thread, I hear this phrase you typed hastily--and it's really very funny when you think about it, although you didn't readily agree with my seeing humor in those cormorants feasting at the farmers' expense:

to hide foot at their feet

I just keep hearing one bird say to the other, "Shh! Be quiet! I'm hunting! Can't you see that I'm hiding the foot at my feet?"


#98395 03/15/03 12:00 AM
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wwh Offline OP
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Dear WW: I'd make more typos if I could be sure they all would amuse you. That particular typo puzzles me a bit, as I was thinking "food" and have no explanation for typing a "t" for a "d". My touch typing is a big help to me now that I can't read the labels on the keys.


#98396 03/15/03 12:10 AM
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One good outcome of an interesting typo is it tends to cement the word under discussion into my brain. I'm sure mantling will remain in permanent residence as I imagine that bird hiding a foot in its feet. Reminds me of the little country kids playing with chickens' feet, but I better not go into that bit of country lore, for it would surely disgust some readers here.

I don't mind making typos here so much as reading some horribly constructed sentence I wrote in haste. I figure most of us are typing pretty quickly anyway--looking in on the board at work for a few minutes--trying to get in a few words edgewise--so typos are just part of the game. But to see that I wrote a long sentence and somehow got lost midstream, forgot what the subject was, and ended up with a glaring subject-verb disagreement? Aggggggghhhh! I just groan in pain once sighting the disagreement. Terrible thing to have your subjects and verbs disagreeing with each other on an otherwise friendly language board.

I must confess that mantling maneuver has me a bit confused. I would like to see exactly what mantling is and what it isn't. I keep imagining a bird flying in a hovering manner. Wish I'd seen your program.


#98397 03/15/03 12:54 AM
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formerly known as etaoin...
#98398 03/15/03 12:58 AM
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I also came upon this:

http://web.genie.it/utenti/d/doberm/heraldry.htm

mantling as it is used in heraldry. think of the shape of a mantle, and it begins to make sense.





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#98399 03/15/03 01:39 AM
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What a startling photograph that is of the osprey, et'! So, mantling does look like a hover, as I'd imagined, only in the case of the photo link you gave, the osprey's position is a stationary hover. Since the photolink mentions "chicks," I take it that the osprey is mantling over at least one very large chick--its feathers appear to be the same as the adult with the piercing eyes.

I've seen ospreys on the Outer Banks (NC) carry sticks in their talons for nest building. They carry the sticks with aeronautical sense: fore to aft. Many thanks for the link to that unforgettable photograph!

Too bad the heraldry information didn't suggest that sometimes feathers were used for the mantling in a coat of arms, although greenery was mentioned as being usual. How delightful! I think I've just learned my first heraldry term!


#98400 03/15/03 01:45 AM
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yeah, I thought that was an amazing photo, too. birds are so ****ing cool!

here's a link to the rest of the page:
http://www.ctbirding.org/photos_of_ct_birds.htm

though unfortunately there are no more pictures of that osprey...



formerly known as etaoin...
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