Weekend Contest Results

WEEKEND CONTEST RESULTS

You were to give me a title or a lyric of a song and replace one of the worlds with the word "pumpkin." This was a popular contests it seems. Below is a list of the entries.
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Pumpkin in the way she moves.
For he's a jolly good pumpkin
Bother can you spare a pumpkin
Midnight pumpkin to Georgia
The Pumpkin is a Tramp
Up on the Pumpkin
One Oclock Pumpkin
Always a Pumpkin there to remind me…
Pumpkins just want to have fun..
Pour some pumpkin on me..
How much is that pumpkin in the window…
Oh Holy Pumpkin
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzpumpkin
We Wish You a merry Pumpkin, We Wish You a merry Pumpkin.
Pumpkins Keep Falling on my Head
He Ain't Heavy, He's My Pumpkin
Puff The Magic Pumpkin
What if The Pumpkin was one of us
Yeah, yeah, The Pumpkin is good...
Yeah, yeah, The Pumpkin is great...
The Pumpkin is watching us, The Pumpkin is watching us
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Congratulations every one. After frightening deliberations the judge has awarded first prize of a solid aluminum plated pumpkin seed to Val of the Blogspot Tigers for "Pumpkins keep falling on my head" which actually got a chuckle out of the old fart.

Thank you all
DB
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There Is Something More

I would put myself in the way of revelation.

Bate - The Vagabond
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Years ago I knew a lay preacher at a large Baptist church in Harlem. She wasn't clergy but she was a good woman, very devout and dedicated. She would often preach to the congregation of that church which she said had some members who had come through terrible times of poverty and drug addiction. Even though I was not a member of her church or even a church goer myself, and she knew it, she seemed to think I had positive advice to offer her and so she would discuss her sermons with me

One day she went through a list of Bible references and concluded that if you are a believing Christian then the answer to all of life's problems is faith. Well, that answer wasn't good enough for me, so I asked her if that was all there was to it. What else could there be? She went back into her references and said that she guessed love for God and man was part of it. "What else?" I asked. Then she came across things like honesty, compassion, obedience and so forth, and she finally said "You know what? You're right. There is always something more."

I had a conversation with a friend's 14 year old daughter who said her favorite thing to study in school was science. I asked her if she preferred lab science or field science and she said she wanted to do them both. It must be a very interesting and rewarding life to be a research scientist, not someone who mixes the same old formulas over and over again, but someone who is always in the process of discovery.

One of the great pleasures in my retirement is reading. I read all the time, books, magazines, newspapers. It's slow going because I have to use a magnifying glass, but I don't care. If I get my eyesight back I think I would read just as methodically as I do now because I don't want any ideas to pass me by. There are old forgotten ideas to rediscover, new discoveries, discoveries hidden in familiar material that I missed before, there are even discoveries within discoveries. Some discoveries are surprising and some are awesome.

My black lady preacher friend also said that even if we don't know they are there they remain to be revealed. One of the greet discoveries of all is that behind each new idea, even behind the process of discovery itself is something which has to be experienced to be understood. Even the most sublime idea is merely a sign post, a trail marker pointing us toward revelation, toward the awakened land of enlightenment. That I will find that road and stay on it is where my faith is.

Bate - The Vagabond
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WEEKEND CONTEST

You are to give me a song title or a lyric substitution for one of the words the word "pumpkin" as in "Somewhere over the pumpkin" of "My pumpkin 'tis of thee"

Enter as often as you want. The winner will be whoever can get the sour, angry, nihilistic judge to laugh so hard he pees in his knickers.,

Good luck
DB
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Extra! Extra!

The good news is that the truth is never far away. It's right here, in fact, posing as backdrop.

Erik Hansen
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When I was growing up in New York during the 40's and 50's there were seven daily newspapers: The New York Times, The Daily News, The Daily Mirror. The New York Post, the World Telegram and Sun and The Journal American. They were all important papers with serious journalists and committed to their readers.

These days only the giants are left, the Times, the News and the Post. I worked off and on for The New York Times as a radio announcer. I was once interviewed by the News and my acting has been reviewed by critics from all of the papers.

One Christmas season I worked for a book store, a very large book store, one of the biggest in the country. The owner and manager knew a lot about books, publishers, authors, designers and so forth. When there was a book sellers convention and he stood up to speak everyone listened to him because of what he knew. He knew everything about books, except what was in them.

Today in New York there are also many newspapers printed in foreign languages. There's El Diario, the Spanish language paper, Il Progresso, the Italian paper. La Monde for French speakers and papers I don't know the titles of in Russian, German, Greek, Arabic, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Thai and other languages.

To ride the subway in New York is to often see people reading one of these different newspapers, a sign of the rich and varied sophistication and cultural diversity of the city.

I sometimes receive offers in the mail to subscribe to a club which will send me the world's great literature in tasteful, leather bound tomes that will look very nice on my bookshelf if I had one. Those books aren't meant to be read. Reading them might spoil the look. They are for decoration and some of them are collectors items. Besides, if you are going to read "Moby Dick," which few people ever do, you will probably get the Penguin paperback.

Marcel Proust once made the suggestion that all the frivolous passing news of the day should be published in expensive leather bound books along with the weather reports, sports scores and other simple stuff you find in newspapers while all the great writing of the centuries should be published in the daily papers. It would certainly have an impact on the accumulation of wisdom among the general population. What do you think?

DB - The Vagabond

Weekend Contest

WEEKEND CONTEST

You are to give me a song title or a lyric substitution for one of the words the word "pumpkin" as in "Somewhere over the pumpkin" of "My pumpkin 'tis of thee"

Enter as often as you want. The winner will be whoever can get the sour, angry, nihilistic judge to laugh so hard he pees in his knickers.,

Good luck
DB
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This final, most joyful, effusive, high-spirited yes to life is not only the highest insight, it is also the most profound, the most rigorously confirmed and supported by truth and study.

Friedrich Nietzsche
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It has been bitter cold here the past several days, not Arctic cold, perhaps, but colder than places south. Fortunately we haven't had a dusting of snow or a light rain or we would have ice all over.

I live in a part of the world where I get to see the seasons come and go, and I like that very much. Like maple trees and butterfly wings no two Springs are alike nor two Autumns. Sometimes Autumn weather will last well into Winter and sometimes, like now apparently, the Winter weather will trudge unexpected into the colorful Autumn. One must be prepared for all changes.

Being prepared for changes and looking for them is important to our lives and livelihoods, and to the stability of the society we live in. Even though the seasons rotate like the planets and even though the planett describe orbits, the movement of life is forward. Even though we can't be aware of it, standing still on a moving planet means we are never in the same place we were a moment ago. Life is forward motion, and that is as it should be.

On the other hand there are the vicious cycles, the repeated returns to positions we've grown out of, that we have progressed beyond. Whenever you have a new idea or discover a new way of doing something, an improved method, someone will try to force a return to the "old ways." I am tired of the old ways. I'm tired and angry over the forces that will try to make me conform to the old ways, to ways that no longer work for me, if they ever did.

There's an old saying "There's nothing new under the sun." Maybe, but it's not the sun's fault. The scientists of old used to examine sheep's entrails to determine the outcome of battles. Today's scientists look at the same entrails trying to determine cures for diseases.

I study philosophy, science and history to see to where the world is moving, the earth in it's orbit and humanity in its thinking. But I notice with dismay that those who are the speakers and movers of politics, religion and society are moving right back away from progress and into the futility of the past like the proverbial snake swallowing its own tail. Careless disinterest in history is causing it to be repeated.

"Gimme that old time religion, it's good enough for me." Well, it isn't good enough for me or any intelligent person who wants to step off the carousel of forward and back, forward and back, and face the destiny of life in a cosmic enclosure, free of the limitations of sameness, liberated from superstitious tradition, turned away from alarming anti-intellectualism, guided by the stars of courage, curiosity and imagination, and greet it with a loud and joyful "YES."

DB - The Vagabond
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AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

Only 9 responses so far. I await your answer.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
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Learning To Talk Good

Reason has always existed, but not always in a reasonable form.

Karl Marx
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In my research I came across this Vagabond Journey from last Spring and it is just too much fun not to reprint it. So here once again is "Learning To Talk Good"

There is a vigorous movement in this country to make English the truly official and only language of the United States. That seems like a reasonable request. After all, if people can't understand each other when they speak they would have to carry a translator around with them wherever they go. That can get very expensive.

So let's see. First I would suggest establishing a bureau to determine what proper American English should be, perhaps a cabinet post, Secretary of Language and Verbal Communication presiding over the Department of Language and Talk, (DOLT).

Soon a Dictionary of American English should be published and every American citizen and immigrant should be required to carry one at all times and to consult it immediately if there is any doubt about proper American expression. Incorrect use of our language and any lapsing into foreign terms will be a felony.

Then, under the benevolent guidance of DOLT we will begin eliminating all strange words from our vocabulary. No more saying "adios" to a Mexican or "bon jour" to a French Canadian. No longer saying "bravo" at a concert or "mazel tov" at a wedding. Such utterances will be illegal. If you aren't careful you may find yourself in the clink.

Americans will no longer live in "haciendas," ride "burros" or do anything
"pronto." A "Ford" is acceptable, but not a "Chevrolet."

Now let's talk about food. That thing you had with breakfast was a "crescent roll" not a "croissant." Get it? Don't go to a restaurant expecting or order "fillet mignon," chicken "cacciatore," pork "lo mien," "wiener schnitzel," "moussaka" or "pizza."

If you go to the bar you can have a Guinness or a Harp, I suppose, though you're better off with Budweiser or Miller. But don't try ordering Heineken or Lowenbrau. And for heaven sake, don't ask for a "martini." The cops will be there pronto. Excuse me, I mean in a minute.

Now about wine (that's "wine" not "vin" or "vino." See?). There's California wine, New York State wine and, I don't know, Florida wine, whatever. But we have to get rid of these alien French names: "Merlot, Chablis, Chardonnay, Beaujolais, Champagne." Stick with "wine," red, pink, white or sparkling. That's the American way.

We will no longer have to go into "bistros" or "boutiques." There will be no more "yachting,," "snorkeling" or "apres"skiing.

Some states will have to change their names to conform to the true blue American language. States like "Vermont," "Illinois" and "Colorado." Those are much too foreign sounding.

Various publishers will, of course, be important in shaping our language. For one thing they will see to it the all foreign language references are removed from their books. The Greek, Latin and French quotes will be rendered in American English only.

Music publishers will do away with references such as "Presto," "Andante" and the very suspicious "Allegro Ma Non Troppo."

Along with the new American English Dictionary will come words that every true American should know, such as "biker," "dogged," "ho," "red neck" and "yuppi,." plus the real American pronunciation of certain words like "lieberry," "Febyooary," "stoopit," "noocyooler." "punkin" and "presperation."

And finally, we should have an all-American dialect. It's a shame that a man from Maine and a man from Mississippi can't understand each other. And we certainly don't want to speak English in the strange way the English do. So, as a New Yorker, I suggest we conform our dialectic to the way they talk in Da Bronx. It seems to be the most articulate of them all.

I look forward to the day when every sign, every book, magazine and newspaper, and every word I hear spoken on radio, TV and on the street is the true, red, white and blue American language: Inlish.

DB
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AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

Only 9 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
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