[lit-ideas] Re: Stella!!!

  • From: "Walter C. Okshevsky" <wokshevs@xxxxxx>
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2010 13:38:15 -0230

Mike's reply to my question "What's it like being a human being" is below. He
sent it to my e-address alone but I believe it was meant for the collective. 

Returning to a pile of finals,

Cheers, Walter

P.S. One day we should chat about the myriad ways that undergrads have devised
to answer exam questions about which they know nothing or very little. Makes
one wonder whether 'tis not a virtue of some hitherto unknown kind to be able
to write a 4 page answer in an exam booklet - beautiful handwriting, btw - to a
question you haven't a clue about. And to write in conclusion: "Walt, your
course and you are awesome!! I learned SO much. Hope my answers show it." 

(Nobody has ever called me "Walt." "Walter," "Sir Walter," "Sir Walter of O,"
"Doc OK," and much more not especially suitable for family viewing, but never
"Walt.")


Quoting Mike Geary <jejunejesuit.geary2@xxxxxxxxx>:

> ON BEING A HUMAN BEING -- WHAT IT'S LIKE
> 
> It's like not being a cat and limited to a one word vocabulary.  I hate it
> when my cats (I have 4) try to talk to me.  They say the same damn word over
> and over and over like I was a idiot.  They're the idiots.  "What?  are you
> hungry?  You want to go outside?  Is your liter box disgusting?  Tell me
> what the hell you want!"  "Meeeowww."
> 
> Humans are very lucky.  We can say things like "Eschew obfuscation."  or
> more importantly we can discuss the meaning of life.  For instance consider
> this essay by Harry Belafonte:
> 
> WOMAN PIABA, MAN PIABA
> 
> When I was a lad just three foot three, certain questions occured to me
> So I asked me father quite seriously to tell me the story about the bird and
> bee
> He stammered and he stuttered pathetically and this is what he said to me
> 
> He said the woman piaba and the man piaba
> And the dan dan call back lemon grass
> The lilly root, gully root, belly root Ungh!
> And the famous grandy scratch scratch
> 
> It was clear as mud, but it covered the ground
> And the confusion made me brain go round
> I went and asked a good friend of mine known to the world as Albert Einstein
> He said "Son, from the beginning of time and creativity there existed the
> force of relativity
> Pi R square and minus ten is rooted only when the solar system in one light
> year
> Make the Hyden planitarium disapear
> So if Mt. Everest doesn't move, I am positive that it will prove
> 
> That the woman piaba and the man piaba
> And the taun taun coal back lemon grass
> The lilly root, gully root, belly root Ungh!
> And the famous grandy scratch scratch
> 
> It was clear as mud, but it covered the ground.
> And the confusion made me brain go round.
> I grabed a boat and went abroad.
> And in Baden Germany asked Sigmund Fraud.
> He said, "Son, from your sad face remove the grouch,
> put the body up on the couch.
> I can see from your frustration a neurotic sublimation
> Love and hate is psychosomatic.
> Your Rorschach shows that you're a parapathetic
> It all started with a broken sibling
> in the words of the famous Rudyard Kippling.
> 
> He said the woman piaba and the man piaba
> And the taun taun coal back lemon grass
> The lilly root, gully root, belly root. Ungh!
> And the famous grandy scratch scratch
> 
> Well I travel far and I travel wide and I don't even have meself a bride
> All the great men upon this earth have confused me since my birth
> I been over land and been over sea, trying to find the answer about the bird
> and bee
> Now that I am ninty-three, I don't give a damn you see
> 
> If the woman piaba and the man piaba
> And the taun taun coal back lemon grass
> The lilly root, gully root, belly root. Ungh!
> And the famous grandy scratch scratch
> 
> 
> Mike Geary
> Piabaing in Memphis.
> 
> 
> 
> On Sun, Aug 8, 2010 at 11:39 AM, Walter C. Okshevsky <wokshevs@xxxxxx>wrote:
> 
> >
> >
> > Quoting Mike Geary <jejunejesuit.geary2@xxxxxxxxx>:
> >
> > snip
> >
> > >I like being a human being.
> >
> > Really? Could you tell us what it's like?
> >
> > Walter O
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > >
> > > On Sat, Aug 7, 2010 at 7:54 PM, Ursula Stange <Ursula@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > >
> > > >  The funniest thing about my whole summer...
> > > > New people moved in two doors down (yes, on the other side of the
> > > > neighbours horribilis) who have 2 quite young children and a
> teeny-tiny
> > > dog
> > > > of some Pomeranian-or-so complexion named Stella.  Too funny to hear
> > the
> > > > little boy yelling yelling in his teeny-tinny voice across the
> > intervening
> > > > yards.....STELLA!!!
> > > >
> > > > Ursula,
> > > > carrying on in North Bay
> > > >
> > >
> >
> >
> 

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