Divide children into two sets of equal numbers.
Have one set join hands and form a circle, the others
in the center of the ring, in crouching position.

Sing a song of sixpence,
A pocket full of rye;
(Children in circle skip to the left while singing)

Four and twenty blackbirds
Baked in a pie!
(Children in circle skip to the right,
then stretch arms up toward center to form the pie.)

When the pie was opened,
The birds began to sing;
(Children in circle bring arms back down
to waist level, then children in center of ring
begin to ‘chirp’ and ‘tweet’)

Wasn’t that a dainty dish
To set before the king?
(Children in circle skip to the left;
children in center flutter about like birds.)

The king was in his counting house,
Counting all the money;
(Children in circle walk backward
four steps then pretend to count money;
children in center keep fluttering like birds)

The queen was in the parlor,
Eating bread with honey
(Children in circle walk forward
four steps, kneel and pretend to eat;
children in center keep fluttering like birds)

The maid was in the garden,
Hanging out the clothes;
(Children in circle pretend to pick up clothes,
then turn outward and hang them up.)

When down came a blackbird
Who snapped off her nose!
(Children in center flutter to, and run around,
those in the circle, one bird to one child, each snapping
off a nose. Those in the circle kneel and the birds each
hold up one finger to represent the nose.)

I’m in a few places right now, primarily good, but under a bit of stress.

I’ll be changing jobs, soon… one way or the other. I’m not confident that my position here will exist by the time my birthday rolls around, which is less than a month away. (at this writing, it’s at 21 days, 17 hours, 49 minutes, 8 sec.)

Potential jobs in the future doing contract work, and perhaps some financial management for a local club. (at least until I find something more stable) . Just Called Suzy up, and she may have a gig lined up for me, and it seems that she’s going to want some of my help for something. (I hope it’s not financial, as I’m trying to gear up for some belt-tightening, in case of hungrier times ahead. I don’t think I’ll have to, but I’m happier safe than sorry.

Going out with Pix & Joel tonight for supper, picking up some info regarding the project she needs done, and handing it off to Kev. I may do it as a personal excersize too, but not until I find a steady, paying gig.

Looking into the future, I see good things. I see a better job (maybe a 9 to 5 gig, with more pay, and a more beneficial to humanity service) , a continually growing relationship with the girl that I love (I love her more every passing day… how is it possible? She’s so wonderful… patient, kind, loving, thoughtful, smart, sexy, beautiful….) and hopefully more improvements in my life. A bigger place to live, thinknig again about getting a pal for Newton, who has been such a wonderful element in my life. Spiritually, I see growth ahead, too.

All and all a good bundle.

Happy Birfday, ZenDaisy!

Step Inside Love
(John Lennon, Paul McCartney)
Lead Vocal: Paul McCartney

Step inside love and stay
Step inside love
Step inside love
Step inside love
I want you to stay

You look tired, love
Let me turn down the light
Come in out of the cold
Rest your head on my shoulder
And kiss me tonight
We are together
Now and forever, come my way

Step inside love and stay
Step inside love
Step inside love
Step inside love
I want you to stay

One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble
Not much between despair and ecstasy
One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble
Can’t be too careful with your company
I can feel the devil walking next to me

Bangkok! Oriental setting
And the city don’t know what the city is getting
The creme de la creme of the chess world in a
Show with everything but Yul Brynner
Time flies – doesn’t seem a minute
Since the Tirolean spa had the chess boys in it
All change – don’t you know that when you
Play at this level there’s no ordinary venue
It’s Iceland – or the Philippines – or Hastings
Or – or this place!

One night in Bangkok and the world’s your oyster
The bars are temples but the pearls ain’t free
You’ll find a god in every golden cloister
And if you’re lucky then the god’s a she
I can feel an angel sliding up to me

One town’s very like another
When your head’s down over your pieces, brother
(It’s a drag, it’s a bore, it’s really such a pity)
(To be looking at the board not looking at the city)
Whaddaya mean? You’ve seen one crowded, polluted, stinking town –
(Tea, girls – warm and sweet – warm, sweet)
(Some are set up in the Somerset Maugham suite)
Get Thai’d! You’re talking to a tourist
Whose every move is among the purest
I get my kicks above the waistline, sunshine

One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble
Not much between despair and ecstasy
One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble
Can’t be too careful with your company
I can feel the devil walking next to me

Siam’s gonna be the witness
To the ultimate test of cerebral fitness
This grips me more than would a
Muddy old river or reclining Buddah
And thank God I’m only watching the game – controlling it
I don’t see you guys rating
The kind of mate I’m contemplating
I’d let you watch I would invite you
But the queens we use would not excite you
So you’d better go back to your bars, your temples
Your massage parlours

One night in Bangkok and the world’s your oyster
The bars are temples but the pearls ain’t free
You’ll find a god in every golden cloister
A little flesh a little history
I can feel an angel sliding up to me
One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble
Not much between despair and ecstasy
One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble
Can’t be too careful with your company
I can feel the devil walking next to me

Tman (or any fan of superman). might need something to do… click here..

ok, it’s officially cool. been playing with it, had to manually do my aim and icq list, so if you see me, say hi, and I’ll add you back… not being rude, just may have mis-entered a name or 7. 🙂 some downsides, but a few nifty upsides… not the least of which is seeing of other users are on the same webpage or site as you, (if they don’t want to be invisible) a sort of webby tour guide where you can take folks with you places online, and just a neat way to consolidate all my folks into one happy window. a good idea, but there are a few flaws. it doesn’t; support the info features, like I don’t know if an aim person has been idle a while, but it will show me if they’re set n/a…if this thing will hop the firewall at work, I’m totally set. looks like you have to send icq messages through the server… will have to check that out too.

anyhow, going to bed! gnite! 🙂

Thanks to the folks who commented !

well, it’s neat… some interesting features. says theres 2 invisible users on my page… wonder what that means… trouble converting my icq and aim lists over, but nifty.

downloading odigo in an attempt to combine my yahoo, aim, and icq. will let y’all know if it works… and ask y’all for your userid’s again, if it all goes horribly wrong. 🙂

i posted this.

Hypocrisy of the war on drugs. (of course, I’d prefer to see us out of the business entirely, m’self.)

after 5. I can play my recorder.

(I can’t believe I forgot both my book and my recorder at work yesterday! ack! )

downside of recorder. I can neither talk, nor type while playing it.

or maybe that’s the upside. 🙂

Trying to work out a recorder version of a Dave Matthews tune… Has a warm spot in my heart.

Good things to focus on: Ornj, Lavender, #36, comfort, Newton…

bliss is everywhere, you just have to remember where you keep it.

Why do I feel paranoid today?

*ponderponder*

I see duplicity everywhere.

Dashiell Hammett was born in St. Mary’s County, Maryland, on May 27th, 1894. He became a detective in 1915 when he joined the Baltimore branch of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, housed in the Continental Building. Hammett learned the detective trade from James Wright, a short, squat, tough-talking operative, whom Hammett came to idolize. Hammett left the Pinkertons in 1918 to enlist in the Army, but tuberculosis contracted while in service prompted his medical discharge less than a year later. He eventually settled in San Francisco, and by 1922 he was a professional writer, publishing his first hard-boiled short story, “Arson Plus,” in the October 1923 issue of the pulp magazine Black Mask. This story featured his ground breaking character, the Continental Op — the nameless operative of the Continental Detective Agency. Hammett’s Continental Op novels Red Harvest and The Dain Curse were published in 1929; The Maltese Falcon (featuring Sam Spade, 1930), The Glass Key (featuring the gangster Ned Beaumont, 1931), and The Thin Man (with Nick and Nora Charles, 1934) were all best sellers; the final three became successful films. He wrote a handful of screenplays in Hollywood, was active in leftist politics in the 1940’s and 1950’s, and died on January 10, 1961.

Raymond Chandler described Hammet’s writing style in The Simple Art of Murder:

Hammett wrote… for people with a sharp, aggressive attitude to life. They were not afraid of the seamy side of things; they lived there. Violence did not dismay them; it was right down their street. Hammett gave murder back to the kind of people that commit it for reasons, not just to provide a corpse … He put these people down on paper as they were, and he made them talk and think in the language they customarily used for these purposes.

The Maltese Falcon (1930)
Hammett’s reputation is largely built on his novel The Maltese Falcon, where many of the character types and situations which eventually became cliché were first introduced. San Francisco private detective Sam Spade is the protagonist that defines the type: an unsentimental, cynical, almost amoral “tarnished knight” with a private sense of justice and duty. The colorful supporting characters–the femme fatale, the antagonistic cops, the devoted secretary, the master criminal–and the complicated plot of double-crosses and shocking revelations created a sensation in the detective genre.

The novel was first published serially in Black Mask, and then quickly reprinted in book form. The novel went through eight reprintings in 1930 alone. It has remained in print in various hardback and paperback editions and continues to be easily available today. Certainly much of The Maltese Falcon‘s popularity is owed to John Huston’s fine 1941 film adaptation which starred Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Peter Lorre, and Sidney Greenstreet. This was actually the third filming of the novel, and it remains the definitive version. Huston adapted Hammett’s novel with minimal changes, often transferring unaltered pages of dialogue from book to film.

Sam Spade also appeared in a handful of short stories which were reprinted in book form in A Man Called Spade, edited by Ellery Queen.

——————————————————————————–
The Glass Key (1931)
This novel followed hard upon the success of The Maltese Falcon. It was first serialized in Black Mask from March to June 1930, but did not see book publication in America until April 1931. The Glass Key follows Paul Madvig, a political boss in an unnamed city (modeled on Baltimore), and his trusted assistant Ned Beaumont, in a complicated story of friendship, political corruption, and murder. It brought Hammett continued critical and commercial success, and was filmed twice: first in 1935 when it starred George Raft as Ned Beaumont and Edward Arnold as Paul Madvig, and again in 1942, starring Alan Ladd, Brian Donleavy, and Veronica Lake. The basic plot resurfaced in the 1990 film Miller’s Crossing, starring Gabriel Byrne and Albert Finney.

——————————————————————————–

The Continental Op
Although Hammett didn’t invent the “hard-boiled” genre, he was the most important and influential practitioner of the genre’s early years. His stories featuring a nameless detective–commonly known as the Continental Op–set the standard for all hard-boiled detective literature to follow. The Op is the epitome of the hard-boiled hero: tough, professional, equally at home with criminals and the police. He is short, fat, middle-aged, and more likely to solve problems with his automatic or fists rather than with puzzle-solving abilities. In a remarkable series of short stories first published in Black Mask in the 1920’s and 1930’s, and in the novels Red Harvest and The Dain Curse (both 1929), Hammett’s Continental Op became the model for all of the hard-boiled detectives that followed.

A number of paperback books from the late 1940’s and early 1950’s, reprinted many of the best Op stories. Hammett’s Op stories had been largely unavailable in the 1930’s and 40’s until “Ellery Queen” (the joint pseudonym of Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee) edited this series of reprints for a new generation of readers. Unfortunately, many of these stories continue to be difficult to find outside of these reprints.

Although never filmed as written, the basic plot of Red Harvest has been recycled numerous times. Basically a western in modern clothes, it was easily adapted as a Japanese samurai film in Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo (1961), readapted by Sergio Leone in the classic “spaghetti western” A Fistful of Dollars, and has nearly come full circle in last year’s film Last Man Standing, which starred Bruce Willis.

Some editions of the Hammett paperbacks included maps on the back covers indicating where criminal activity and key plot twists took place.

——————————————————————————–

The Thin Man (1934)

Hammett’s last novel combined hard-boiled style with lighthearted comedy, and proved to be a resounding success: it sold 34,000 copies in the first eighteen months. Perhaps even more than The Maltese Falcon, however, The Thin Man owes it’s reputation to Hollywood rather than to Hammett. In the summer of 1934, the film version of The Thin Man was released, with William Powell and Myrna Loy as the characters Nick and Nora Charles. The film was a great success, and it spawned four sequels over the following years. All in all, this novel earned Hammett over a million dollars, but it killed his writing career: he never again wrote anything of consequence.

Hammett himself posed as the figure on the dust-jacket of the first edition, and became the model of the detective Nick Charles.