If you’ve never watched Glenn Beck, you’ll probably still find this amusing. If, like me, you have sat with head tilted and mouth agape staring at a snippet from one of his sermons, horrified yet unable to turn away, I think you’ll think it’s brilliant.

Puts me in mind of the great Bob & Ray when they took on Joseph McCarthy (see previous post).

Here’s another cool animation made by French schoolchildren, titled Qui a Volé les Géants? (Who Stole the Giants?). It’s made by kids at the Godewaersvelde day camp. I can’t quite follow the plot, but I love the way it looks.

More animation

Hana on Broadway (in Seattle) has pretty good sushi. Nothing fancy – no stripey sculptured rolls that look like snakes, no tasteful drizzle of high-priced mystery sauce – just simple, fresh sushi at a good price. The atmosphere is nothing special. Somewhat run-down. Cafeteria-like, only smaller.

But Hana has the best miso soup I’ve ever tasted. I haven’t tasted a lot of miso soup. I’ve had it in maybe a dozen different restaurants at most, and I’ve made my own miso soup at home (don’t ask). But Hana is definitely the best miso soup I’ve ever eaten.

Now somebody’s probably going to leave a comment revealing that Hana uses some cheap miso soup mix or some simple recipe anyone can make. At least I hope someone does.

Iggy Pop performs that old chestnut Les Feuilles Mortes, aka Autumn Leaves.

This post goes out to all my friends in North Carolina.

Little Orphant Annie

by James Whitcomb Riley

Little Orphant Annie’s come to our house to stay,
An’ wash the cups an’ saucers up, an’ brush the crumbs away,
An’ shoo the chickens off the porch, an’ dust the hearth, an’ sweep,
An’ make the fire, an’ bake the bread, an’ earn her board-an’-keep;
An’ all us other childern, when the supper-things is done,
We set around the kitchen fire an’ has the mostest fun
A-list’nin’ to the witch-tales ‘at Annie tells about,
An’ the Gobble-uns ‘at gits you
Ef you
Don’t
Watch
Out!

Wunst they wuz a little boy wouldn’t say his prayers,–
An’ when he went to bed at night, away up-stairs,
His Mammy heerd him holler, an’ his Daddy heerd him bawl,
An’ when they turn’t the kivvers down, he wuzn’t there at all!
An’ they seeked him in the rafter-room, an’ cubby-hole, an’ press,
An’ seeked him up the chimbly-flue, an’ ever’-wheres, I guess;
But all they ever found wuz thist his pants an’ roundabout:–
An’ the Gobble-uns ‘ll git you
Ef you
Don’t
Watch
Out!

An’ one time a little girl ‘ud allus laugh an’ grin,
An’ make fun of ever’ one, an’ all her blood-an’-kin;
An’ wunst, when they was “company,” an’ ole folks wuz there,
She mocked ‘em an’ shocked ‘em, an’ said she didn’t care!
An’ thist as she kicked her heels, an’ turn’t to run an’ hide,
They wuz two great big Black Things a-standin’ by her side,
An’ they snatched her through the ceilin’ ‘fore she knowed what she’s about!
An’ the Gobble-uns ‘ll git you
Ef you
Don’t
Watch
Out!

An’ little Orphant Annie says, when the blaze is blue,
An’ the lamp-wick sputters, an’ the wind goes woo-oo!
An’ you hear the crickets quit, an’ the moon is gray,
An’ the lightnin’-bugs in dew is all squenched away,–
You better mind yer parunts, an’ yer teachurs fond an’ dear,
An’ churish them ‘at loves you, an’ dry the orphant’s tear,
An’ he’p the pore an’ needy ones ‘at clusters all about,
Er the Gobble-uns ‘ll git you
Ef you
Don’t
Watch
Out!

Here is a reading by Val Grimm from the Librivox catalogue.

We had this poem in a book when I was growing up, and I used to enjoy trying to read it aloud with the proper accent. Sometimes I think it’s a shame that dialect writing has gone out of fashion. It’s very difficult to do it anymore without sounding ridiculous. It always seems to imply that the speech is substandard. A lot of old dialect writing is ridiculous, too, but some of it – like this poem – is delightful.

More poetry

Irish artist Harry Clarke’s illustrations for a 1919 collection of Edgar Allan Poe stories.

Judy Collins and Pete Seeger singing Wild Mountain Thyme (Will You Go, Lassie, Go?) on Pete’s old TV show. Heard some old guys singing this at the pub last night. I had forgotten all about this beautiful old song.

I’ve recently translated Pitkä uni (The Long Dream), a short story by Sari Malkamäki from her collection Jälkikasvu (Offspring), for Books from Finland magazine.

The story feels very vivid to me. Among other things, it describes an experience similar to one I once had, when my sister’s phone called me without her permission. I don’t know how common an experience it is, but the story captures exactly the feeling that it gave me at the time.

Studio 360 recently re-ran a delightful 10-minute piece from earlier this year with actor/playwright Sarah Jones and linguist John McWhorter discussing the benefits and drawbacks of having a “blaccent”.  Jones’ amazing quick switches between different American accents is really fun. Here’s the audio:

I picked all my green tomatoes a couple of weeks ago, to keep the rain or a frost from spoiling them. I keep them in a paper bag and check it every few days and fish out the ones that have ripened.