bed post

Phoebe got a real bed a couple of weeks ago, inspiring me to think about beds for a ThThTh list¹.

A bed list²

1. make one’s bed and lie in it: an expression meaning that one must accept the consequences of one’s actions. The wording of the expression is somewhat variable, with various subjects (and agreeing possessives) possible, some variation in tense/aspect of the verb make, and variability in the the following clause. eg. You’ve made your bed, and now you must lie in it. or He made is bed, so now he’ll have to lie in it.
2. The Princess and the Pea: a classic fairy tale in which a pea is hidden under mattresses to test whether a girl can feel the lump under the bedding
3. “Someone’s been sleeping in my bed.” Something the bears say in the fairy tale Goldilocks.
4. flower bed: an area, such as in a garden, that has been planted with flowers
5. bed of roses: an expression meaning an easy or luxurious situtation. More often heard with a negative, such as “it was no bed of roses.”
6. fortune cookies: If you add “in bed” to the end of the fortune when you read it, hilarity will ensue (in bed).
7. hotbed: an environment conducive to rapid growth
8. Beds Are Burning, a song by Midnight Oil. (youtube video)
9. “5 little monkeys jumping on the bed:” a children’s song/rhyme of the “counting down” variety:
   

   Five little monkeys jumping on the bed
   One fell off and bumped his head
   Mama called the doctor and the doctor said
   “No more monkeys jumping on the bed!”

   Subsequent verses are sung with one fewer monkeys jumping, until one reaches the final “no more monkeys” state. There’s a book based on the rhyme, too.

10. “10 in the bed:” another kids’ song of the countdown type.
    

    Ten in the bed and the little one said “roll over! roll over”
    So they all rolled over and one fell out…

11. in bed with the enemy: an expression meaning “consorting with the opposition”
12. strange bedfellows: an expression used to describe a situation where unlikely individuals cooperate, having been brought together to by unusual circumstances. Taken from a line from Shakespeare’s The Tempest: “Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.”
13. “In Bed with Madonna:” The title of the 1991 Madonna movie (“Truth or Dare“) as it was released in various countries. I saw it in Brazil as “Na Cama com Madonna.”
14. “My Bed is a Boat:” a poem by Robert Louis Stevenson from A Child’s Garden of Verses
    

    My bed is like a little boat;
    Nurse helps me in when I embark;
    She girds me in my sailor’s coat
    And starts me in the dark.

15. “Come, Let’s to Bed:” a Mother Goose rhyme:
    

    “To bed! To bed!”
    Says Sleepy-head;
    “Tarry awhile,” says Slow;
    “Put on the pan,”
    Says Greedy Nan;
    “We’ll sup before we go.”

16. bed head: hair that has been messed up during sleep, or that at least appears that way

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¹Also at times inspiring me to miss the cage-like qualities of the crib. Is duct tape really so wrong?
²You know, I pretty much never make my bed. But I’m clearly not opposed to making a bed list.³
³You know, I really need to get to bed.

girl in bed image source: Ella M. Beebe Picture Primer (New York: American Book Company, 1910), Copyright: 2008, Florida Center for Instructional Technology