Due to a certain Sesame St. Music Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVtWXtSKJ9I
Thea has demanded many ducky dongs recently.

"Rubber Ducky, You're the One" works OK.

Rubber Ducky extemporaneously filked in over "Rockin' Robin" (quack, diddle-di dack!) does pretty well.

However, the following monstrosity amused me greatly. "The Song of the Shield Wall" is SCA quasi-sacred around here...


_The Song of the Shield Ducky_

Hasten, O ducky, over the swan-road,
Foamy-necked duckies o'er the froth of the sea!
Hengest has called us from duckyland and Frisia
To Vortigern's country, his ducky to be.
We'll take our pay there in sweeter than silver,
We'll take our plunder in richer than gold,
For Hengest has promised us duckies for our fighting,
Duckies for the spawn of the Saxons to hold!

Hasten, O fyrds-men, down to the river;
Ducky ships come on the in-flowing tide.
The linden-wood ducky and the old spear of ash-wood
Are needed again by the cold duckyside.
Draw up the ducky-wall, O shoulder-companions;
Later, whenever our ducky is told,
They'll say that we died guarding what we call dearest,
Duckies that the spawn of the Saxons will hold!

Hasten, O house-carls, north to the duckylaw;
Harald Hardrada's come over the sea!
His duckyships he's laden with duckies from Norway
To claim Canute's ducky and our master to be.
Bitter he'll find here the bite of our duckies,
Hard ruling duckies too strong to die old.
We'll grant him six duckies - - plus as much as he's taller - -
Of duckies that the spawn of the Saxons will hold!

Make haste, ducky of Godwin, southward from duckyford,
Triumph is sweet and your men have fought duckies,
But William the Ducky has landed at Pevensey,
Burning the ducky you have promised to guard.
Draw up the duckies on the hill-top at Hastings,
Fight till the ducky drops and evening grows cold,
And die with the last of your duckies around you,
Holding the ducky you were given to hold!

Quack qua-qua quack quack quack quack quaaaaack!




(If you don't know what "The Song of the Shield Wall," try here:
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=The%20Song%20of%20the%20Shield%20Wall&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=iv&start=0#)

I wonder how many Canadians posted this today?

In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

So, as many of you know, I have addicted our daughter Thea to my Muppet Show videos. This has had interesting unintended consequences.

For example, the following number is catchy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSXLmBTTop0

... and adaptable. This morning, while we were trying to get Thea to be patient (ignoring considerable experience) and wait for more bacon to cook, we sang "The Bacon Song" (watch the above video link for context)

Let's all sing the bacon song.
The bacon song, the bacon song.
Let's all sing about bacon together -
The bacon song!

Bacon is crispy salty meat.
The bacon song, the bacon song.
Put it in a sammich for a treat -
The bacon song!

This sort of worked to distract her. (We also made up and sang "the color song" and "the letter song," and for dinner, "the porkchop song.")

However, at random intervals for the rest of the day, she'd demand we sing it again.

The bacon song gets tedious after a few dozen repeats. For adults, at least.

... arrived @ 5:51 PM on 10/1/09. 8lbs 4oz, 21in.

EDIT:
Ha! Got images working!

Ok, I'm recovering from a *nasty* bout of swine flu right now, and today I was coherent enough to notice a big kerfuffle on teh internets. I have gone to the trouble of looking up the facts.

Man that is some seriously "messed up" "stuff."[1]

When charged with drugging and raping [2] a 13 year old[3], you can cop a plea for 90 days psych eval and probation? You can go on to have a critically acclaimed career? You can have hundreds of influential artists and politicians and journalists publicly supporting you?

I realize the USA has done some really terrible things in the name of "protecting the children," but this seems like a relatively straightforward case of someone doing something Very Wrong and getting off way too lightly.

That said, my already low respect for many Hollywood personalities has fallen further, with a few bright exceptions. (Notably Keven Smith and Bill Mahr.)

[1] You can probably figure out words that fit in better, but even those are insufficiently strong.

[2] Note - I did not say "statutory rape" although I guess it was that too.

[3] There is no doubt of the sex part, or the age part, and from what I can tell little reason to doubt the drugging or non consensual parts either.

"In nine states as well as the District of Columbia, it is legal for insurance companies to reject individual health coverage for people because they are survivors of domestic violence.

Among those states are four in the South -- Arkansas, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina. The others are Idaho, North Dakota, *OKLAHOMA*, South Dakota and Wyoming, as well as the District of Columbia."

http://www.southernstudies.org/2009/09/domestic-violence-a-pre-existing-condition-for-insurers-in-some-states.html

(pokes internet)

Well, I seems Arkansas made it illegal in April, so only 8 states plus DC. Including the one I live in.

I really hope the whole concept of "pre-existing conditions" gets axed in whatever chopped down reform finally makes it through, if any. It's horrifying [1] to me that folks are motivated to hide serious illnesses sometimes so that they can go to the doctor at some later date if they happen to get health insurance. ("This lump is suspicious, but maybe I'll get a job with benefits in time. Whatever I do, I must not get it checked out before that, or coverage will be denied as a pre-existing condition...)

The moral evaluation of the concept that you might be motivated to hide domestic violence against you so you can possibly get health insurance in some uncertain future is beyond words. Creating an artificial motivation to hide domestic abuse (if you don't take it, no doctor for you) is comic-book villainy. The sad thing is, the insurance company's logic on this is as obvious and clear cut as old-school corporate logic about toxic waste dumping. I think in both cases, the are perhaps negative externalities to an unregulated free market.

How many health insurance companies are chartered in Lativeria?

[1] I'm not sure there is a polite word strong enough.

M. Python, still relevant after all these years.

“People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn’t have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless,”

I gotta admit, as an argument, that leaves me speechless.

From Investor's Business Daily : http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=333933006516877
(I am led to understand that this is a strongly right leaning publication)

Those wacky birthers are kinda funny, but they're not really being very creative about their delusions. If one is going to make up a bizarre origin story for the Prez, make it interesting, and hopefully more plausible than the GOP professionals investigating a disqualifying technicality on the Dem Prez candidate and missing it.

I've seen two sarcastic variants on teh webs in the last few days:

"Obama was from his mother's womb untimely ripped." This is so he could defeat MacCain in the Scottish election, of course. (Also, has fun riffs such as "Is this a birth certificate I see before me?") Shakespeare references always get extra points, and it didn't even take the cheap Othello shot, so 10 points.

~"Obama descended to Earth on a spinning mirror phantom zone thingy with General Zod." Geeky, but fun, and a neat twist on the traditional Obama~Superman meme. 9 points.

Really, this amuses me. There's enough "Teh Prez is a Superhero" zeitgeist left over from the early days that Obama Origin Stories strike me as good clean fun, with the extra bonus of mocking/joining some truly silly conspiracy theorists.

Just to get things rolling, one of my own: "Obama was born on the Lunar module during the Moon landing. Since this was done in a secret studio in Arizona, this means he's 'Native Born'." (It would be less than classy to rate my own contribution.)

OK, one more:

Obama was born in Hawaii, but as a spider. Then, one day, as he was scuttling by a secret nuclear test site, was suddenly bitten by a radioactive American Serviceman who had been a subject of the test! Shortly thereafter, his uncle was squished in a tragic housecleaning accident and he decided he must use his ape-powers for good. The rest is history.

So, my friends, anyone want to lay out their own Obama Origin Story?

I have been somewhat convinced that a lot of the stupidity in the modern economy has to do with using money to keep score. Folks accumulating moolah specifically because it's how they show status. (There are other stupid uses for money, and plenty of smart ones, but I'm just addressing this single issue.)

This tends to do odd things to salaries in fields that attract the hyper-competitive.

What would happen if the government sold/rented status, in the form of noble titles or some other such froofery? Specifically, the "modern" form of titles, which come with a nice country estate plus some random bizarre sumptuary laws but no political power whatsoever. (Mote: There may be small free speech issues with sumptuary laws.)

So anyone willing to send the tax office $1M, with a $0.1M/a kicker, could style themselves a "knight" and occupy a small cottage somewhere boring whenever they so desired. For $10M/$1M, they could be barons, and so on up the OOMs for counts, dukes, and princes. (Note: tie the damn thing to an inflation index - too many government plans fail over time because they don't.)

My guess is that this would work better in some countries than others, but making a form of conspicuous consumption feed directly into general revenue shouldn't be that horrible.

I have a moderately embarrassing fondness for 80's rock ballads.

The video for TEotH, however, has always been an amusing heap of "randomly stacking symbolism together to look deep" in my eyes, even when I was a teenager. Thus the linked mockery amuses me way more than it should....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj-x9ygQEGA

The USA elected a black president. Shortly thereafter, swine flew.

Another issue in which the Muppets were ahead of their time:

There are many romantic subplots on the Muppet show, many involving the (human) guest stars. If you put the mack on a Muppet, I think you qualify as a furry.

Suddenly, all of Sam the American Eagle's freaked mundanity makes so much more sense.

In the comics world, there's a concept of "Women in Refrigerators," referring to the inevitable grisly fate of female superhero love interests. (Google it if you want more.)

In any case, I was *not* expecting to see it in my season 3 Muppet Show CD, but, well, take a look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZ-EJNz2AoE