over and under, all over again

As I was writing the post I put up Monday, I found myself having a bit of a soundtrack going through my head. Most prominent was “Over and Under,” by Joydrop. “Down Under,” by Men at Work came to mind. And at one point “Overpowered by Funk,” actually came up on the playlist I had playing. (Theo likes The Clash, so I will play it for him when he’s fussy. It’s good bouncing music.)

It may not shock you that I have, in the past, enjoyed putting together playlists by theme. (One of these days I will show you my question and answer playlist.)

So as I wrote my…um…poem…I found myself also jotting down song titles. And then I took it another step, and put together a playlist. Which made a sort of poem or story itself.

    Over + Under (Joydrop)

    Overachievers (Crash Test Dummies)
    Overkill (Men at Work)
    Blue Overall (XTC)
    Overpowered by Funk (The Clash)

    Under Control (The Strokes)
    Under Pressure (Queen and David Bowie)
    Overcome (Tricky)
    Pushover (The Long Winters)
    Under my Thumb (Social Distortion)

    Under the Bridge (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
    Bridge Over Troubled Water (Simon and Garfunkel)
    Under the Milky Way (The Church)
    Over the Rainbow (Innocence Mission)
    Head Over Heels (Tears for Fears)
    Overhead (Furslide)
    Undertow (REM)

    Under Water (Mary’s Danish)
    Underground (Ben Folds Five)
    The Ugly Underneath (XTC)
    Underwear (The Magnetic Fields)
    Underneath it All (Nine Inch Nails)
    Down Under (Men at Work)
    Underwear (Pulp)

    From Under the Covers (The Beautiful South)
    All Over the World (Pixies)
    Over There (The Housemartins)
    Over and Over (Camper van Beethoven)
    Over and Over (Morcheeba)

    It’s Over (Tom Waits)
    Over (Portishead)
    It’s Over (Filter)
    I know it’s Over (The Smiths)

    Over Now (Alice in Chains)
    All Over Now (Aimee Man)
    It’s All Over But the Crying (Garbage)

    Now the Day is Over (Innocence Mission)
    Over and Done With (The Proclaimers)
    I Am Over It (The Dandy Warhols)

I am a highly trained stunt procrastinator. Don’t try this at home.

Well, actually, do try it. It’s fun. Just go to your iTunes library, or whatever source of songage you choose, and pick out song titles that write a story or a poem. (This is not unlike Magpie’s book stacking task, which I keep meaning to try. You should try that, too, while your at it. Because you need more distractions.)

weaving out of control

overwhelmed and under pressure
buckling under, in over my head
fruitflies overtake an underripe banana

overeducated and underdressed
chronic overachiever feeling snowed under
underestimated tasks, schedule overloaded
commitments overlapping and under the gun
time to shave underarms when hell freezes over

overwrought and under attack
hot under the collar I overreact
overeasy eggs have undercooked yolks

overextended and underfunded
tree branches overhang, basement floor under water
the undergrowth is overgrown
overdue bills crackle under foot
in under the roof, squirrels overrun the attic

overprivileged and underproductive
an overstuffed sofa cushion under my butt
get over yourself and get underway
the monkey’s overboard and the undertow pulls

overtired and under the weather
overconfidence getting undermined
soft underbelly feels overexposed
overanxious thoughts swept under the carpet
laundry overflowing and no clean underwear

overwritten and underwhelming
an overzealous undertaking
overblown metaphors from under my hat
overcooked pasta with underseasoned sauce

picking a favorite (PhotoHunt)

photohunter7iqThis week’s PhotoHunt theme is “favorite,” which left me at a bit of a loss for interpretation. I’m not much good at picking favorites, in general. I’m more likely to give a list of 5 or 10 (or 100) of something, and say they are “among my favorites.”

Anyhow, I somewhat arbitrarily picked this recent photo (which I’d rated in my iPhoto Library as a “favorite”) as it seemed somewhat iconic of picking a favorite color. (Phoebe doesn’t have a favorite color right now. Sometimes she’ll pick one, like blue or purple, or sometimes she’ll say “I like all the colors.” A child after my own heart.)

crayons

goosey, loosely

goose_girlIt’s that time of year again. You know, when the goose is getting fat. And you know what? So is my goose list for this fine Themed Things Thursday. But I’m in a bit of a rush, so I’ve gotten a bit loose in my descriptions.

A flock of geese things

  1. one’s goose is cooked: an expression meaning that one is in trouble. Eg. “She knew her goose was cooked when she saw the flock of angry geese heading her way”
  2. a wild goose chase: an expression for a fruitless venture, usually involving a lot of wasted energy. And sometimes flying feathers.
  3. a goose walked over my grave: an expression meaning “got a sudden chill”
  4. goose bumps: bumps that a appear temporarily on the skin when a person is cold. Perhaps because the skin looks a bit like that of a plucked goose.
  5. what’s good for the goose is good for the gander: an expression meaning that both male and female should be plucked. Or otherwise get equal treatment.
  6. take a gander at: an expression meaning “have a look.” As in “Take a gander at those soldiers doing the goose step.”
  7. goose step: a formal style of military marching.
  8. Spruce Goose: an airplane made out of wood.
  9. to goose: to poke someone in the butt, or between the cheeks.
  10. gets my goose: an expression one says when something has annoyed or made angry. (Probably a corruption of the similar “gets my goat.”) You know what really gets my goose? Getting goosed.
  11. duck, duck, goose: a children’s game played in a group. Participants sit around in a circle and quack and honk. (No, not really. Click the link if you don’t already know the game.)
  12. Mother Goose: a name given to the author of traditional nursery rhymes, who may or may not have been a real individual.
  13. Gossie: a children’s book by Olivier Dunrea about a gosling and her bright red boots.
  14. “The Goose Girl”: a fairy tale about a girl who is frequently goosed. Or maybe not.
  15. The Golden Goose: a recipe for roasting a goose. Or maybe it’s another fairy tale.
  16. The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs: a fable attribute to Aesop about a couple who had a profitable business agreement with a goose until they got too greedy.
  17. killing the goose that laid the golden eggs: an expression based on the above fable, said of people who have it out for geese, and are worried about cholesterol levels.
  18. goose egg: a slang term for zero, based on the fact that goose eggs weigh absolutely nothing. Or maybe because of their shape.
  19. silly goose: what one might call a person who is behaving in a silly way.
  20. give a gift of geese: Heifer International offers geese among their gift options, getting a family a goose to raise. Much better than getting goosed.

simpleton_finds_the_golden_gooseold_mother_goose

the hunting of the tree

My mother is out for a visit, so I haven’t had much time for blogging. But I did want to share some photos.

We went to get a Christmas tree yesterday from our local tree farm. The farm is actually about 2 miles down the road from us, and we pass it on the way to Phoebe’s daycare. Remarkably, though, this was the first year we’ve managed to go there for a tree. (We’ve been there for blueberry picking, though.) We don’t always get a tree, since we tend to travel for Christmas. And then the times when we have gotten a tree, we’ve gone too late for the tree farm. (They seem to close for the season about a week before Christmas.)

Anyhow, it was a lot of fun. We had our first snow of the season overnight, so things were looking particularly wintery and festive.

Me with Theo bundled in the bjorn and a blanket. (Photo taken by my mother.)
Me with Theo bundled in the bjorn and a blanket. (Photo taken by my mother.)

My mother and Phoebe head out to find a tree.
My mother and Phoebe head out to find a tree.
Hunting the tree.
Hunting the tree.
Sawing the tree.
Sawing the tree.
Pulling the tree.
Pulling the tree.
Pulling the tree.
Pulling the tree.
Tagging the tree.
Tagging the tree.

Finally, here’s the video I like to call “shaking the tree.” (Alternately, you may prefer to watch this YouTube of a different Shaking the Tree.)

blueberry breakfast

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photohunter7iqThis week’s PhotoHunt theme is “breakfast.”

These are pictures of Phoebe at breakfast this morning. She’s wearing my mother’s blue beret and eating frozen blueberries. (As in blueberries that are still frozen. She likes them that way. They’re like little blueberry popsicles.)

It’s a Wonderful Knife

Watching The Nutcracker is a long-time favorite Christmastime utensil tradition in many homes. But did you know that there are plenty of other excellent holiday specials and movies about utensils?

Lesser-known Holiday Utensil Shows

its-a-wonderful-knife

  • It’s a Wonderful Knife
  • Frosty the Soupspoon
  • Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Strainer
  • All I Want Fork Christmas
  • The Baster Christmas Pageant Ever
  • Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Tongs
  • How the Grinch Stole Chopsticks
  • Spatula on 34th Street
  • The Ladle Drummer Boy
  • I’ll Be Home for Cheese Grater
  • The Sporks of St. Mary’s
  • Whisks in Toyland
  • It Came Upon the Midnight Peeler
  • Yes Virginia, There Is a Garlic Press

    • the cutting edge

    knife_12For last week’s ThThTh list, I set the table with forks and spoons. I said I’d be back later with the knives.

    1. like a hot knife through butter: an expression meaning that something was or can be cut easily
    2. not the sharpest knife in the drawer: an expression meaning “not very smart,” playing of the use of the word sharp as a synonym of intelligent.
    3. The Subtle Knife: A novel by Philip Pullman, second in the trilogy His Dark Materials. (It’s the sequel to The Golden Compass.)
    4. “3 Blind Mice”: a nursery rhyme and song in which a carving knife is used. Possibly is about Bloody Mary.

      Three blind mice, three blind mice,
      See how they run, see how they run,
      They all ran after the farmer’s wife,
      Who cut off their tails with a carving knife,
      Did you ever see such a thing in your life,
      As three blind mice?

    5. going under the knife: an expression meaning “having surgery”
    6. “I always eat my peas with honey”: A poem of largely unknown origins. I first ever heard it while visiting my in-laws last week (and eating peas), and then encountered it a second time the next day when Magpie left it as a comment on my utensil list. Kind of eerie.

      I always eat my peas with honey;
      I’ve done it all my life.
      They do taste kind of funny but
      It keeps them on my knife.

    7. Shonen Knife: an all female “pop punk” band from Japan. They also have an album called Let’s Knife.
    8. “Mack the Knife“: a song from the Threepenny opera. Has been performed by many, From Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, and Louis Armstrong to Sting, The Doors and The Psychedlic Furs.
    9. “Cuts Like a Knife”: the title track from the 1983 Bryan Adams album (YouTube)
    10. Slash with a Knife, a book of works by artist Yoshitomo Nara with many paintings of angry and threatening-looking but cute litte kids.
    11. Knives can be used for slashing, stabbing, and throwing (as well as slicing, dicing and julienning), so they appear pretty frequently in movies as weapons. You might see them such in fight scenes (eg. West Side Story) or murder mysteries (eg. Gosford Park).
    12. The knife is one of the possible murder weapons in the boardgame Clue.
    13. “That’s not a knife. This is a knife.” A line from Crocodile Dundee. (See the scene on YouTube.)
    14. “Chefs do that”: A line from the movie The Long Kiss Goodnight. Geena Davis plays an amnesiac with no memory of her past life as an assassin. When she discovers her skill with knives, she briefly thinks she must have been a chef. Then she throws a knife and skewers a tomato against the wall, saying “chefs do that.” (You can see at least part of the scene in the trailer on YouTube.)
    15. knife throwing: a sport involving throwing knives at a target. (The goal is to hit the target with the point of the knife, not, for instance, the handle.)
    16. knife throwing act: involves a performer throwing knives around a person, with the goal of not impaling the person. Somewhat ironically considered an “impalement art.” Here’s an example of a mother throwing knives at her little kids in the 50s:
    17. knifehand strike: a martial arts strike using the “blade” of the hand (not the palm or a fist), and sometimes called a “karate chop.”
    18. “In Japan, the hand can be used like a knife.” A famous line from a 1970s commercial for the Ginsu knife.