View Full Version : alternative moral ending
billkilpatrick
May-16-2005, 11:07pm
for those familiar with the aesop story of the industrious ant who works-works-works all summer long storing up enough to bide him over the cold winter months and the frivolous cricket who just plays-plays-plays and dies of starvation and the cold ... i was wondering if anyone would care to offer an alternative, altogether pluckier moral ending to the story?
like: find ants who loves to dance.
mandroid
May-17-2005, 12:04am
Theres the ants that dismember the grasshopper and take the bits into their larder to feed the colony.
just another day on the floor of the rainforest.
OdnamNool
May-17-2005, 4:39am
Ya know, Mandroid... #I don't mean to brag, or be mean, or start a "flame," but I think I could be pretty damn good at thinking up a plucky moral to respond to some of your comments... #However, I'm quite sure it would be deleted, so... why bother? #Empathy ("the ability to identify oneself mentally with a person or thing and so understand his feelings or its meaning..." is something that perhaps you don't understand... #I happen to like hemiptera... #(And I'm hopin' Eastman Gordon does too!) #Hee hee!
Crud... #I kept telling myself... "I'm not gunna post, I'm not gunna post!" #But there are times when I just can't help myself. # # http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mad.gif
LKN2MYIS
May-17-2005, 5:37am
Well, they say the real problems in this world are apathy and ignorance.
I say - "I don't know and I don't care!" http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif
OdnamNool
May-17-2005, 7:03am
How clever! #I see, LKN whatever-the... I see how you changed your word from empathy to apathy! #That is a dirty trick! #I hope you are proud of yourself...
OdnamNool
May-17-2005, 7:04am
Well, they say the real problems in this world are apathy and ignorance.
I say - "I don't know and I don't care!" http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif
Oh... wait... Maybe I should save his quote with the "evidence"... (Before he deletes it... ya know...)
LKN2MYIS
May-17-2005, 7:07am
Never claimed to be a typist.
(Or, for that matter, a good mandolinist!)
OdnamNool
May-17-2005, 7:11am
P.S... the quote (above) has been edited... His/Her original statement was, "Well, they say the real problems in this world are empathy and ignorance..." And that is the truth...
OdnamNool
May-17-2005, 7:16am
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. I am TRYING to be polite, here.... Uh... ya want wanna those, "Smekin Uke" ummmmm.... GRRRRRRRRRRRR Moderator!
LKN2MYIS
May-17-2005, 7:30am
Decaf, Odnam, DECAF!
Yes, that was the original, but not what I meant to type. It is EARLY IN THE MORNING.
Please forgive my error.
Feel better?
OdnamNool
May-17-2005, 7:45am
Oh. O.K... It's just that you changed it after I put my comment in about how I was both (empathetic and ignorant...) Which I admit to having both those traits... Sorry...sorry...
Yick... Decaf??? I mean... if yer gunna drink coffee, you might as well drink the real thing, right?
I appoligise for the mis-communication... http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif
LKN2MYIS
May-17-2005, 7:50am
No apology necessary.
And I agree. I'm so addicted, I actually buy the green coffee beans and roast them at home.
Coffee in the morning - nothing like it.
picksnbits
May-17-2005, 8:15am
Can we get this back on topic, people?
Like,.....
In the spring a huge swarm of grasshoppers hatches and eats everything in sight causing all the ants to starve to death and wiping out Pa's wheat crop so that the Ingalls family has to pack up and move back to Minnesota. The devestation was so complete that the bees couldn't make enough honey to support the hive so they stung all the little baby bees to death.
We're reading the Little House books and that's exactly the point we got to in last nights reading. Good bed-time story, huh?
GTison
May-17-2005, 8:16am
and when the winter came.... The grasshopper went on government assistance lived in an old camper with Arthur Itus. He couldn't pick anymore or afford cable TV or Green coffee beans.
Because of global warming, winter never really comes so the grasshopper never gets cold or runs out of food. He does get tendentious because more grasshoppers survive, so the party is on 24-7 and there's lots of places to play for free.
Moral of the story is jam while it's good 'cause it's all going down the tubes soon.:p
fatt-dad
May-17-2005, 9:12am
. . . . only to realize that the spider has the same number of legs as a mandolin.
picksnbits
May-17-2005, 9:15am
How many legs does a mandolin have?
fatt-dad
May-17-2005, 9:19am
(poorly developed thought.)
. . . . only to realize that the ant should have bought a guitar, 'cause only the spider has enough legs for that dang mandolin.
what the ding-dong blazes is this thread doing on a mandolin board?
vkioulaphides
May-17-2005, 9:34am
As the "Greek in the family", may I clarify? The other insect involved in the story attributed to Aesop is not a cricket but a tetingx, i.a. a cicada, a creature whose life-cycle is inevitably seasonal.
Part of the beauty of the story is the overlap of two animal life-cycles: one perennial (the ant's) and one seasonal (the cicada's). It is meant to illuminate nature in general, as much as to inform human nature specifically.
As for a better, happier ending: the ant invites the cicada to his anthill for the winter; of course, they BOTH play the mandolin. With an adequate supply of duet materials, hey, winter isn't so bad (or so long) at all!
Believe me, I have tried this! #http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif
Cheers to one and all.
Victor K.
fatt-dad
May-17-2005, 9:37am
Well, I for one got a good laught from it. Notably from the subtile inquiry and "ding dong blazes".
(Not to all moderators, fatt-dad provided first reference to mandolin - is there free strings for that?)
f-d
bratsche
May-17-2005, 9:40am
Bugs is bugs. Stomp 'em all, sez I.
bratsche
picksnbits
May-17-2005, 9:41am
You're right Dan, the grasshopper was a fiddler (ironically, so was Pa Ingalls) so this clearly belongs on another thread.
JD Cowles
May-17-2005, 9:42am
wow, i haven't had any coffe yet. #i think i missed somethin here. #dan, please watch the language man.
http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif
http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/coffee.gif
John Rosett
May-17-2005, 9:48am
the ant worked and worked, and worried more about the future than the present. even though the ant was a very talented musician, he spent his life working, hoarding, and worrying, and never played his mandolin enough to realise his potential. he lived to a great old age with his stockpile of food, and was bitter and unhappy the whole, long time.
the cricket, however, played her mandolin every day. she danced and sang, and enjoyed life. she didn't live nearly as long, but at the end of her life, she looked back and was satisfied that she had lived life to the fullest, and had made the world a better place with her music.
so there's a moral, and a reason for it to be on a mandolin message board too.
by the way, the genders of the ant and cricket in my version don't mean anything in particular.
john
*Rolls eyes, goes back to looking at mandolin threads
reindoggy
May-17-2005, 11:59am
enter stage left:
starving anteater with accordion............
Ted Eschliman
May-17-2005, 2:31pm
Dan, with all the recent implosion of non-mando related topics and threads, do you suppose it's possible that the Mandolin Cafe Discussion board has finally accomplished the seemingly impossible task of discussing every possible element of mandolin building and playing?
Maybe you and I are soon to be out of a job...
newblue
May-17-2005, 2:47pm
Whats the best way to get rid of fire ants?
bratsche
May-17-2005, 2:53pm
Gasoline and a match?
bratsche
TeleMark
May-17-2005, 4:10pm
Whats the best way to get rid of fire ants?
Banjo.
Whats the best way to get rid of fire ants?
Banjo.
Nora on mando.
Dan, with all the recent implosion of non-mando related topics and threads, do you suppose it's possible that the Mandolin Cafe Discussion board has finally accomplished the seemingly impossible task of discussing every possible element of mandolin building and playing?
Maybe you and I are soon to be out of a job...
Perhaps it would be a good idea to have a Forum for civilized discussion of anything non-mando related? A lot of boards have such a forum. It eases tension and gets the not-on-topic stuff off the other forums. It's only human nuture to want to discuss other topics with poeple with which you have one topic in common. It be nice to have a friendly place to discuss stuff like what you like to eat and drink when you get together to jam or whatever.
Just a friendly suggestions.
this non-mando thread area was tried, and i loved it, but some couldn't seem to handle some friendly discussion and took things a tad too far.
siren_20
May-18-2005, 9:01am
I like kvk's idea.. there's a real community here, and some digression from mando-related topics is bound to happen. It would help members get to know each other better, and possibly solve problems like this.
picksnbits
May-18-2005, 9:40am
This topic is totally mando-relevant.
We're just having a bit of fun with the age-old debate of work verses play. Most of us would rather play the mandolin all day but this fable stands as a reminder that a total lack of productivity is likely to lead to starvation, although in modern society that doesn't seem to be the case.
'course, instead of taking the topic seriously, all us grasshoppers decided to have fun with it.
So, would you ants either start dancing, or just get back to work, please?
picksnbits
May-18-2005, 9:41am
and besides, we haven't flamed anyone except a bunch of ants.
straight-a
May-18-2005, 9:50am
The grasshopper teaches us that life is to be enjoyed, no matter how brief our stay here may be. He sang, played, danced, enjoyed the sun and flowers and looked forward to each new day. The ants show us how how said and pitiful our lives can be. They work endlessly and and put their backs against the economic storms and when the clouds part, they tell their young "we must now work even harder to build up even more wealth that we will never use or enjoy. Life is not meant to be fun, it is only a bleak existence where we suffer endless toil and hardship." As the old Chinese monk used to say, "Wise choice, Grasshopper!"
billkilpatrick
May-20-2005, 8:39am
as this thread appears to have run its course i'd like to say that in my opinion, arranging for a surprise guest appearance of an ant-eating accordionist at the ant's harvest ball would tide the cricket nicely over those chilly winter months.
Ted Eschliman
May-20-2005, 11:20am
Perhaps it would be a good idea to have a Forum for civilized discussion of anything non-mando related? #
Thank for the suggestion Ken. Contrary to what some may think, the Moderators do contemplate on a regular basis, how to accomplish a civil, edifying discourse on the topics of and related to mandolin playing and building. We aren't above an occasional "tweak."
The experiences we've had in the past with "off-topic" forums within the Mandoin Cafe ended up in a disproportionate amount of attention and "custodial" work on our behalf. Call it laziness, but it's just simpler to keep the interest of the submissions here limited to mando-relevant material.
After all the internet is a BIG wide-open frontier (some might even say "wasteland"); lots of opportunity to discuss non-mando stuff on other forums. With all due respect, there are other places one could choose to "deviate" and hang.
JD Cowles
May-20-2005, 12:03pm
the alternate ending could have a decidely bluegrassy overtone IF:
the grasshopper took the ant for a walk down by a river after drinking a bottle ofburgundy wine. #the ant, now wary of the grasshopper notices the sword at his side and the freshly dug grave (the grasshopper spent the best part of last nite digging). #the grasshopper, knowing that winter is fast approaching:
A. #runs the ant through with the sword, hastily buries him, then runs into town and proclaims that he killed said ant.
B. #runs the ant through with the sword, and tosse him into the river below.
C. mandohack forever bans me for beating an already dead horse of a thread...
http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif
There may be interesting places to "deviate" and "hang", for a while anyway. Hope you can find a way to do that on this board, moderater folks. But, in any event, play on and have fun!
Scott Tichenor
May-20-2005, 4:25pm
As you wish, Neal