Roller coasters and that

Where is this?



It was one of several aerial photos here at Crooked Brains.

Name that Tune: Michael Finnigan, Ten Little Indians

There once was a man named Michael Finnigan
He grew whiskers on his chinnigan
The wind came along and blew them in again
Poor old Michael Finnigan, begin again.

What is that tune!?

It's the same tune at the start of "Way Down Yonder in the Paw-Paw Patch" which I realize many people won't know (and which has a fancier fourth line, musically).

And Raffi sings "Bumpin' up and down in my little red wagon" to that tune with an ending kind of like Michael Finnigan's, without the endless repeats.

And "one little, two little, three little Indians" which isn't politically correct (and has yet a different little end tune).

Some fiddler or concertina player might know the generic tune-name, or older songs with that tune. I might know older songs but it's so common it's in my little-kid brain, not my adult musician brain, like the tune to the ABCs and Twinkle, twinkle little star, which many people don't realize are the same tune for years (and some will realize it when they read this). Baa baa black sheep.

Sunshine and Small Words

I'm interested in lyrics and poems that use all "original English" words--Germanic/Anglo-Saxon words. Without looking deeply into this, it seems to be one. On one pass, I think maybe "pay" and "turn" are from French, but they're from French a thousand years ago, so that's not bad.

Similarly small-word songs are here: SandraDodd.com/smallwords "The morning sun is shining like a red rubber ball." and many more

Sunshine go away today
I don't feel much like dancin'
Some man's gone he's tried to run my life
He don't know what he's askin'
When he tells me I better get in line
I can't hear what he's sayin'
When I grow up, I'm gonna make it mine
These ain't dues I been payin'

How much does it cost
I'll buy it
The time is all we've lost
I'll try it
If he can't even run his own life
I'll be damned if he'll run mine
Sunshine

Sunshine, go away today
I don't feel much like dancin'
Some man's gone he's tried to run my life
He don't know what he's askin'
Working starts to make me wonder where
Fruits of what I do are goin'
When he says in love and war all is fair
He's got cards he ain't showin'

How much does it cost
I'll buy it
The time is all we've lost
I'll try it
If he can't even run his own life
I'll be damned if he'll run mine
Sunshine

Sunshine, come on back another day
I promise you I'll be singin'
This old world, she's gonna turn around
Brand new bells will be ringin'

hand pumps, siphons, water containers

One image I have in my head of how this kind of parenting works is like a hand pump. Some of you might never have used a hand pump on a well, but if it's been sitting a while or the well is deep you might pump this big long handle down and up several times, and nothing happens, but finally you hear the water and then it floods out, more water than you needed. Then the next pump can be controlled because there's water in the pipe already, and it takes just the lightest touch.

Or similarly, siphoning liquid with a short hose, where the beginning is scary and creepy and doesn't seem at all like it would work, but once it's flowing, you don't have to do anything except make sure the end of the hose is below the level of the weight of the water or whatever it is.

Learning and growth are like a limitless reservoir, but we have factors in our culture that limit our access or control or faith that it could even work, or our feeling of ownership of knowledge of growth and learning. Experts. Timetables and charts.

Just in case it would help anyone else to think of it as the flow of water but siphons and hand pumps are unfamiliar, here are some pictures (and they're just interesting anyway):

The one on the left is from Bison Pumps (in Maine). It's a modern version of the cast iron pumps I knew from the mid-20th century (center photo). On the right is a pump from Finland. They're manufacturing pumps in Ghana and Tanzania too.

This one is very interesting, and leads on to another connection: The water container is plastic, but it's a traditional pottery design. In the U.S. we have plastic water buckets, but they're a traditional metal bucket design. (Thanks to Hema Bharadwaj for the link to photos of the non-plastic water containers in use in India.)

added in March 2009, another photo of those water jugs from India. Click it to go to its source (other photos of India):


Thinking about this, though, our current plastic gallon "milk jugs" are based on pottery or glass bottles, only made squarish so they can be packed in safely and tightly for transport. Here's a combo, then: older pump on a forest service site, and people filling up modern "milk jugs" (in New Mexico or Colorado, early 21st century):


Siphoning used to be common for moving gasoline. Gross. I've seen my dad do it many times. In the 70's when gasoline prices went up, people would steal gasoline from cars. Before that, I never saw a locking gas cap. They sold metal springs (like a funnel of coiled wire) to mount inside gas tanks so a siphon hose couldn't be inserted, too.

I never thought of siphoning gasoline again until this week. We have a conversion van we've used for out of town trips. I went with Keith to Costco, the least expensive gasoline in town, and we put $102 worth of gasoline in there. Then a few days later, it wouldn't start and it's in the shop. I'm thinking "We need to get that gasoline back out of there!"

If we were to decide to do that, though, I would try to rig something with the shop vac. (Ah... there are all kinds of hand-squeeze and small-pump plastic siphons for doing this now.)

Fairy Tales

I've always really liked fairy tales, and when I found out there were psychologists and philosophers who saw serious depth and history in them, I was thrilled.

The topic came up on the AlwaysLearning list, and this and that was said, some of which is worth putting here for further thought and discovery.

I'm grateful to those in that discussion who had the time and knowledge to find these quotes:

"If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales.
If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales."

~Albert Einstein~ Scientist (1879-1955)

More Quotes Tomorrow I'm going to bed soon.

Some of the most commonly available fairy tales are

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
Cinderella
Rapunzel
Hansel and Gretel
Rumplestiltskin
Red Riding Hood

Many of them exist in several versions, and the main collections were in Germany and France. Some are related to traditional ballads.

Some stories are generally considered "fairy tales" but they're not of that traditional, passed-down-from folklore genre. The Little Mermaid is a literary story. Hans Christian Andersen wrote short stories, he didn't collect folklore.

I was going to explain more, but I found this and it's pretty good for anyone who cares about the technicalities and terminology:

http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/boardarchives/2001/may2001/definefairytale.html

Here's another recent article on fairy tales.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/09/21/fear_of_fairy_tales/?p1=Well_MostPop_Emailed6, in the Boston Globe. Fear of fairy tales, by Joanna Weiss
September 21, 2008

Natural Learning--The UnSchool

This is where the word "unschooling" came from:



At YouTube it says this is from the 80's and while it might still have been on in those days, it was first on in the early to mid 1970's. There really were glasses like that available, too!

John Holt said that's where he got the idea. And for years people have said, "There was this 7-Up commercial...." but there it is!

I love the internet.

Eye contact and ancient instinctive behaviors

In a discussion on the Always Learning list I came to a pocket of ideas too big for that list. It might be to big for this blog, but at least it can sit here and collect clues and links over the years. Bob Collier wrote the first part. He has an evergrowing set of links and commentary with some really great stuff, and I'll put that link and the link to the discussion from which this came below.

Bob:

It's interesting that maintaining eye contact is so often promoted as
the 'right' way to interact with another person. It clearly in my
experience doesn't produce rapport as effectively as interacting in
whatever way the other person is comfortable with even if that means
no eye contact at all.

Sandra:

I imagine there is something subtle going on as to primacy, something instinctive and inavoidable. Our culture has taught us (and our grandparents for a thousand years or more) that instinct is bad--ignore it. Strive to overcome it. Work through faith in juju, or logic as laid out by philosophers, or doing what your relatives tell you. Always let your culture be your guide—unlike that crazy Jiminy Cricket talking about thinking for yourself, only he WAS talking "conscience" and not instinct. Conscience is the collection of rules and messages and warnings we carry around to hold our problems up to (if we're lucky). Fetal alcohol syndrome can prevent that from happening. Some people harden early and have emotional scars where they should've been building a conscience.

So if "make eye contact" become part of our conscience—one of the things on the checklist to do to be a right and good person—that's not bad. If "be sensitive to others" follows pretty quickly, we'll probably all survive. I can be sensitive to others who would prefer less eye contact. They could be sensitive to me by at least looking at my ear or my hair a few times so I don't feel totally ignored. If that's harder for them than my part is for me I'm sorry, but the whole culture can't sway to accommodate people with problems making eye contact or shaking hands.

If gaze is part of the animal behavior we've been called on to ignore (but we can't, really, we can just be ashamed of it or accept it), then there's something to it that words and wishes can't take away. If I can make contact and someone else can't, then I'm alpha in that second, or I'm being challenging. It's the way bullies intimidate people. It's the way CEOs get ignored. It's why some adults let their mothers push them around.

It was my mention of handshakes that caused me to want to leave it alone or make it bigger.

So for people who come by here, what do you think about eye contact? What have you been told, or read?

What about cultures where people bow? Isn't gaze part of the formality there too, so it's taught?

There will surely be more written in that topic here (starting with July 12):
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AlwaysLearning/message/36354 (I think you have to join that list to see the topics.)

Bob Collier's site is http://www.parental-intelligence.com/ (You'll probably be there a while.)