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Thursday, May 31, 2012

How the Great Badini Became the Great Skeletini


There was a dancer named Badini
Who'd dance as he sipped a martini
To tangos and cha-chas, mambo and fandango
While dining on cav'ar and blini.


He was a sensation, they say,
And he danced with the Bolshoi ballet.
His jetes and plies
Raised shouts, cheers and hoorays.
He was the dance craze of his day.


His troupe flew to El Tropicale
Performing at a dancer's rally
A wheel from the roulette
Caught Badini mid-jet--
And made the dance his grande finale.


At Badini's funeral wake
The dancers did weep, wail, and shake
For he went at his peak
And in fact, in mid-leap;
His Swan Lake did its final take.


  Now Day of the Dead is his venue
And sugar skulls head up the menu.
The dancer Badini
Is now Skeletini
Dancing in the great now and then-u.

Skeletini is available on etsy.   


Wednesday, May 30, 2012

This Dog Could Be Trained to Eat Your Homework


My Dog Ate My Homework

by Kenn Nesbitt




My dog ate my homework.
That mischievous pup
got hold of my homework
and gobbled it up.






My dog ate my homework.
It's gonna be late.
I guess that the teacher
will just have to wait.




My dog ate my homework.
He swallowed it whole.
I shouldn't have mixed it
with food in his bowl.


Dogs to eat your homework on eBay
Dogs to eat your homework on etsy

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Puff the Magic Dragon's Legendary Ancestor


THE TALE OF CUSTARD THE DRAGON

By Ogden Nash (1936)

Copyright Linell Nash Smith and Isabel Nash Eberstadt





Belinda lived in a little white house, 
With a little black kitten and a little gray mouse, 
And a little yellow dog and a little red wagon, 
And a realio, trulio, little pet dragon. 







Now the name of the little black kitten was Ink,
And the little gray mouse, she called her Blink,
And the little yellow dog was sharp as Mustard,
But the dragon was a coward, and she called him Custard. 




Custard the dragon had big sharp teeth,
And spikes on top of him and scales underneath,
Mouth like a fireplace, chimney for a nose,
And realio, trulio, daggers on his toes. 


Belinda was as brave as a barrel full of bears,
And Ink and Blink chased lions down the stairs,
Mustard was as brave as a tiger in a rage,
But Custard cried for a nice safe cage. 



Belinda tickled him, she tickled him unmerciful,
Ink, Blink and Mustard, they rudely called him Percival,
They all sat laughing in the little red wagon
At the realio, trulio, cowardly dragon. 


Belinda giggled till she shook the house,
And Blink said Week!, which is giggling for a mouse,
Ink and Mustard rudely asked his age,
When Custard cried for a nice safe cage. 



Suddenly, suddenly they heard a nasty sound,
And Mustard growled, and they all looked around.
Meowch! cried Ink, and Ooh! cried Belinda,
For there was a pirate, climbing in the winda. 


Pistol in his left hand, pistol in his right,
And he held in his teeth a cutlass bright,
His beard was black, one leg was wood;
It was clear that the pirate meant no good. 


Belinda paled, and she cried, Help! Help!
But Mustard fled with a terrified yelp,
Ink trickled down to the bottom of the household,
And little mouse Blink strategically mouseholed. 


But up jumped Custard, snorting like an engine,
Clashed his tail like irons in a dungeon,
With a clatter and a clank and a jangling squirm
He went at the pirate like a robin at a worm. 



The pirate gaped at Belinda's dragon,
And gulped some grog from his pocket flagon,
He fired two bullets but they didn't hit,
And Custard gobbled him, every bit. 


Belinda embraced him, Mustard licked him,
No one mourned for his pirate victim
Ink and Blink in glee did gyrate
Around the dragon that ate the pyrate. 


Belinda still lives in her little white house,
With her little black kitten and her little gray mouse,
And her little yellow dog and her little red wagon,
And her realio, trulio, little pet dragon. 


Belinda is as brave as a barrel full of bears,
And Ink and Blink chase lions down the stairs,
Mustard is as brave as a tiger in a rage,
But Custard keeps crying for a nice safe cage. 



[ Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/p/peter+paul+mary/puff+the+magic+dragon_10205000.html ] 
Black cats and pups and mice and pirates and dragons on eBay.
Black cats and pups and mice and pirates and dragons on etsy.


 

 






 





Saturday, May 26, 2012

The Turtle Who Deposed Yertle






Do you remember Dr. Seuss' tale of Yertle the Turtle? 


Yertle the Turtle was the king of the pond. Unsatisfied with the stone that served as his throne, he commanded the other turtles to stack themselves beneath him so that he can see further and expand his kingdom. 






However, the stacked turtles were in pain and Mack, the turtle at the very bottom of the pile, was suffering the most. When Mack asked Yertle for a relief, Yertle just told him to shut up. 

When Yertle decided to expand his kingdom and commanded more and more turtles to add to his throne. Mack, now being squished by an even bigger pile of turtles, again asked for relief. Again Yertle told Mack to be quiet. 




Then Yertle noticed the moon rising above him as the night approached.







Furious that something "dares to be higher than Yertle the King", he decided to call for even more turtles in an attempt to rise above it.


 However, before he could give the command, Mack decided he'd had enough. He burped, shaking the stack of turtles and tossing Yertle off into the mud, leaving him "King of the Mud" and freeing the others.

This is Max. The turtle who dared to burp.



 

Go, Max.

Max is carved of rose quartz, and carries a water lily -- which is a lot lighter than a stack of turtles and Yertle.



He's a pendant.  He likes to hang out around your neck.  Right now he's hanging around on etsy.

Friday, May 25, 2012

Poppies for Vets


Poppies for Memorial Day

100% of the sale price for these charms goes to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans. The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans (NCHV) — a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization governed by a 17-member board of directors — is the resource and technical assistance center for a national network of community-based service providers and local, state and federal agencies that provide emergency and supportive housing, food, health services, job training and placement assistance, legal aid and case management support for hundreds of thousands of homeless veterans each year 




Story of the Poppies

In the World War I battlefields of Belgium, poppies grew wild amid the war-torn landscape. How could such a pretty flower grow wild while surrounded by death and destruction? The overturned soils of battle enabled the poppy seeds to be covered, thus allowing them to grow and to forever serve as a reminder of the bloodshed during that and future wars.






The poppy movement was inspired by the poem "In Flanders Fields" written by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae of the Canadian forces in 1915 before the United States entered World War I. Selling replicas of the original Flanders' poppy originated in some of the allied countries immediately after the Armistice.


   

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In Flanders Fields
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.




Remember.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Love Among the Moons


The Mirror, the Cat, and the Moon Love Spell






On May Eve, coax your cat to go with you to a pond or a rushing stream, and take with you a mirror, a man's silk handkerchief, and a white candle with some tinder to light it.


When you reach the water's edge, light the candle, hold it up to the moon, and intone this rune:


Lovely Freya, Queen of the Moon
Bring my true love to me by the month of June.



As the moon rises, call puss and let her study her wide-eyed face in the mirror for a little while. Then turn your back to the water and hold the mirror aloft so that it reflects the moon, and also her reflection on the water. Place the silk handkerchief over your face and count the number of moons which appear in the mirror. If there are but two, a twelvemonth must pass before you are wed, but if there are more, their number represents the months which must pass before you are wed.






If your cat is strong in magick, your true love's face will appear in the mirror, as still as the reflection of the moon, just for an instant.


More cat magic


More magical cat earrings


Moon mirror by www.terraplume.ca



Wednesday, May 23, 2012

I'm Being Followed by a Moonstone Shadow



Moonstone is a stone filled with lore, and believed to hold many special properties.  Among them, it is said that Moonstone: 


Brings good fortune


Assists in foretelling the future



Enhances intuition


Promotes inspiration


Brings success in love as well as business matters


Offers protection on land and at sea


All with a pair of earrings.



Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Luck be a Ladybug Tonight





Bug
by Bruce Lansky

In the window of the washroom
At our school yesterday,
A little bug was crawling

In its little buggy way.
I whispered in its tiny ear

To not make any noise;
because it was a ladybug
And the washroom is for boys.


Adopt some ladybugs on etsy. There are enough ladybugs on this to eat all the lampwork glass aphids in your garden, and then some!