Wednesday, April 02, 2008

I survived today

I flunked out of second semester linguistics. I wanted to come home and curl up under the covers and just sleep. I have to drop the class. I will be reading about Transformational Grammar over the summer and I will like it.

I had meetings to attend-- my first interview for. . . a radio show that I am putting together! It went well. It turns out, they wanted me to meet with the head person before anything official was said so this was really a dry run. As soon as they found out that I was for real they sent me to their manager and were very apologetic. I couldn't have been more grateful but didn't say that. They'd never heard of my college paper or the radio station that I hooked up with.

The day was really good. Before class, I did a pretty letter for a friend-- I painted a tail-less monkey in Chinese brush on the envelope and did another one for my mom. I get credit for the envelopes that I copy and put in my sketch book but I'd do them anyway because they make me a better artist and my letters are fun to receive. It's an honor that he likes them, as well.

I went to music and for the first time I had fun. I sang The Hippopotamus Song.

The Hippopotamus Song

Words by Michael Flanders
Music by Donald Swann and Michael Flanders

A bold Hippopotamus was standing one day
On the banks of the cool Shalimar.
He gazed at the bottom as it peacefully lay
By the light of the evening star.

Away on the hilltop sat combing her hair
His fair Hippopotamine maid.
The Hippopotamus was no ignoramus
And sang her this sweet serenade.

Mud! Mud! Glorious mud!
Nothing quite like it for cooling the blood.
So, follow me, follow, down to the hollow,
And there let us wallow in glorious mud.

The fair Hippopotamus he aimed to entice,
From here seen on the hilltop above,
As she hadn't got a ma to give her advice,
Came tip-toeing down to her love.

Like thunder the forest re-echoed the sound
Of the song that they sang as they met.
His enamorata adjusted her garter
And lifted her voice in duet.

Mud! Mud! Glorious mud!
Nothing quite like it for cooling the blood.
So, follow me, follow, down to the hollow,
And there let us wallow in glorious mud.

Now more Hippopotami began to convene
On the banks of that river so wide.
I wonder now what am I to say of the scene
That ensued by the Shalimar side?

They dived all at once with an ear-splitting splash,
Then rose to the surface again,
A regular army of Hippopotami
All singing this haunting refrain.

Mud! Mud! Glorious mud!
Nothing quite like it for cooling the blood.
So, follow me, follow, down to the hollow,
And there let us wallow in glorious mud.


I was never stopped while I sang and I had fun for the first time in that class. The class sang with me for the chorus.




1 comment:

steve on the slow train said...

`At the Brookfield Zoo, there is or was a sign at the hippopotamus enclosure reading, "Mud, Glorious Mud!" I had never heard the song. (I have now, thanks to You Tube.) And it's a Flanders and Swann tune. (I used the title of a Flanders and Swann song for the name of my blog.)

Thank you for sharing it. Sorry about linguistics. Somehow I think you would have done better in the old days when it was called philology. Break a leg with the radio show.