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.
http://www.youtube.com/user/billkilpatrick
http://billkilpatrickhaiku.blogspot.com/
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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.
writing about music
is like dancing,
about architecture
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. # #
Well, they say the real problems in this world are apathy and ignorance.
I say - "I don't know and I don't care!"
John
Long Island, New York
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...
Oh... wait... Maybe I should save his quote with the "evidence"... (Before he deletes it... ya know...)Originally Posted by (LKN2MYIS @ May 17 2005, 07:37)
Well, they say the real problems in this world are apathy and ignorance.
I say - "I don't know and I don't care!"
Never claimed to be a typist.
(Or, for that matter, a good mandolinist!)
John
Long Island, New York
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...
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. I am TRYING to be polite, here.... Uh... ya want wanna those, "Smekin Uke" ummmmm.... GRRRRRRRRRRRR Moderator!
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?
John
Long Island, New York
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...
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.
John
Long Island, New York
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?
If you can't learn to do something well, learn to enjoy doing it poorly.
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
. . . . only to realize that the spider has the same number of legs as a mandolin.
ˇpapá gordo ain’t no madre flaca!
'20 A3, '84 1N, '84 A5-1, '06 Phoenix Bluegrass, 2012 Cohen A5, 2012 Muth A5
How many legs does a mandolin have?
If you can't learn to do something well, learn to enjoy doing it poorly.
(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.
ˇpapá gordo ain’t no madre flaca!
'20 A3, '84 1N, '84 A5-1, '06 Phoenix Bluegrass, 2012 Cohen A5, 2012 Muth A5
what the ding-dong blazes is this thread doing on a mandolin board?
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! #
Cheers to one and all.
Victor K.
It is not man who lives, but his work. (Ioannis Kapodistrias)
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
ˇpapá gordo ain’t no madre flaca!
'20 A3, '84 1N, '84 A5-1, '06 Phoenix Bluegrass, 2012 Cohen A5, 2012 Muth A5
Bugs is bugs. Stomp 'em all, sez I.
bratsche
You're right Dan, the grasshopper was a fiddler (ironically, so was Pa Ingalls) so this clearly belongs on another thread.
If you can't learn to do something well, learn to enjoy doing it poorly.
wow, i haven't had any coffe yet. #i think i missed somethin here. #dan, please watch the language man.
Proud owner of:
Bill Davis F5 #10502
Martin 000-M
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
"it's not in bad taste, if it's funny" - john waters
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