Quotes and a Rhyming Rant :)

So...i can't say no to fundraising schoolchildren. I have supported a basketball team, bought boy scout popcorn (where is it?!), and, as of a second ago, a bar of the "World's Finest Chocolate" (which it isn't...). I guess i figure that other people need my money as much as i do, which may or may not be true. for certain, i don't need the chocolate. sigh. Anyhow, here are a couple fun quotes from books i've been reading. The first is from "The Education of Little Tree" by Forrest Carter; the second, from "The All New Complete Book of Bicycling" by Eugene A. Sloane.

Little Tree and his grandfather are growing watermelons, with Little Tree waiting impatiently for them to ripen. He describes a few ways to test for ripeness in a watermelon. Here is one of them: "You have to know what you are doing to thump test a watermelon and make any sense out of it. If you thump it and it sounds like a--"think"--it is total green; if it sounds--"thank"--it is green but is coming on; if it goes--"thunk"-then you have got you a ripe watermelon. You have got two chances to one against you, as Granpa said is true in everything."

Talking of the burgeoning bicycle craze in the late 1800s: "The bicycle craze even alarmed businessmen in major cities for a while. They thought the bicycle would bring the nation to economic collapse, and there were a number of compelling statistics to bear them out...By 1896, the watch and jewelry business had fallen almost to zero, piano sales had been cut in half, and book sales had dropped disastrously. Apparently, no one stayed home and played the piano or read, and instead of buying jewelry, people bought bicycles."

And, in closing, an idealistic rant against working dead-end, hateful jobs :)

Flitter 'way a year or two
In travelling 'round the globe,
In learning to play bongos, or
To knit yourself a robe
Using the wool of your own lambs
And dyed with berries you have picked..
Just don't waste time to make a dime
On work that makes you sick!

Lose an hour here or there
By dreaming up a plot
Where good guys dress in tutus and
The bad guys dress in naught.
Or learn to trim an evergreen
Like Edward Scissorhands...
Just don't spend time to make a dime
On work that you can't stand!

Excuse me now, I have to learn
To draw a wildebeest.
Be wise, be ware, be penniless,
But be yourself, at least!