November 28, 2004
big rock candy mountain
Some days I think, "Oh! Dotty, do remember! This would be a most excellent topic for your fondly thought of readership!"
Later in the day I think, "Oh! Dotty! Remember that this would be good to talk about!"
Then later in the day I think, "Oh! Dotty! It's lunch time!"
It's strange the things that are stuck in a person's head. Perhaps mine, in particular, is interesting since there's often some kind of music being played with interpretive dancers skipping ropes of silk. The song they danced to today was "Big Rock Candy Mountain". Where there's a lake of stew and whisky, too.
I know I've talked about it before, but it still makes me laugh when he sings, "You can paddle all around 'em in a big canoe."
Lake of stew...When I took OuchyKim to Florida we talked about the word "stow". As in, "please stow all carry-on items in the overhead bins or beneath the seat in front of you." People don't use that word very often.
OuchyKim has a way with words that is not what most people would choose to be their way. I've always heard people say, "Put that in your pipe and smoke it." She says, "I told them to put that in their stew!"
?
I think she was mixing up stewing in one's own juices with putting "that" (being the stew) into one's pipe and smoking it.
I didn't really feel like saying anything as I was being a most gracious martyr who, without shoes, walked on a road of ground glass carrying supplies and pushing OuchyKim's wheelchair for miles. So instead we decided that the past tense of "stew" is "stow". So I began feeling better when she said, "Put that in your stew!" when I could say, "And stow it!"
That way it seemed like a little jokey jokey. (If you see Florette and need to refer to this genius piece of writing say these three letters: JKK. It'll get you everywhere.) Now, though, I wonder if you paddle all around a lake of stew and then you went home and told your _fill in the blank_ what you did, could you say that it's a lake of stow now that you're out of it? You're done with it. You've had enough. For you it isn't even stew anymore.
It's past tense stew.
It's stow.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it...Don't put it in your stew.
