A word or a phrase resulting from mishearing another word or phrase (especially in a song or poem) is a common phenomenon known as a mondegreen. Courtesy of Dictionary.com. For the longest time, I have listened to the Temptations’s song, “I’ve Never Been To Me” and I always heard “Aunt Jemima” for what I now know are the words “Asia Minor”. I think I finally really listened to the lyrics and heard the correct words and that’s only because it’s one of the songs that’s on my playlist and I hear it more often. So, now I know a word for that mishearing…mondegreen.
I don’t know if what I read or heard was an old wives tale or folk lore–if a wild plant that has medicinal uses voluntarily grows near your home (and it hasn’t before), like in the yard, then look to see what ailments that plant addresses. I have three clumps of plantain in my yard, probably courtesy of the birds that forage there. Anyway, for the first time in years, I bought some cortisone cream because I have been outside and I know I have sensitivities, but this warm weather has caused something to grow that is giving me a rash. Plantain is a plant that can be used to soothe the skin. I don’t use herbicides on my yard, so I dug it up and will replant the plantain in a location that is not mowed.
This change to daylight savings time has really affected my body clock/circadian rhythm. I have been reading until three or four o’clock in the morning and I have to tell myself to stop reading…try to sleep. However, I wake up at about the usual time. Go figure.
I don’t see or hear frogs like I did when I was growing up. I live near n low lying area that has standing water most of the year. The only reason I mention this is I saw a frog corpse on my walk. Flattened road kill, but recognizable. I wonder where all the frogs and toads went?
A draft dodger, a drunk, and military christo-delusionists have started a war. And none of them will be welcomed to the pearly gates, but the sulfuric fumes of the nether world will be the stench of their forever perfume.
I read the first three books of the Dragonriders of Pern series by Anne McCaffrey. The book I bought contained the first three books of the series. I haven’t read these books for about forty to fifty years. I think I read the first book in the series when I was in high school. I still enjoyed the books. I didn’t remember the details in the books, but I remembered the plot. It’s interesting what I picked up on this go around. I was really surprised at the author’s attitude toward “rape”. As long as the male is contrite about his actions, feels regret–it’s okay? The women’s feelings are never addressed, however, if the male has status, it is in the woman’s best interest to stay with the rapist, even to “love” the rapist? I have to remember when the author was writing…in the U.S., women had little autonomy–no credit cards, could not get loans or buy property. No such crime as spousal rape. Basically, women were treated as second class citizens at the time the author wrote the first books in the series. Her writing reflected that reality.
It’s interesting how most writers cannot imagine themselves out of the box of their current environment. even if they can imagine space exploration and settlement…their current environment permeates their work. I haven’t read Asimov or Heinlein lately, but the same applies to them. I stopped reading both of those authors when I realized they could not imagine Black people as worthy of representation in their created worlds. I remembered being so disappointed at that realization. That realization came when i was rereading those authors in the 1980s.
When I first read these authors as a teenager, I didn’t imagine the characters as “white”. I don’t know that I imagined them as Black…maybe they were just people without the baggage of “color”. When I first read the authors, it was all about the story, the created world. The characters were secondary. I don’t think I will re-read the rest of the Dragonrider series. I found myself critiquing the author’s word choices and sentence structure. That does not make for an enjoyable read.
Homo lacerta cerebrum thinks real life is a video game. I’m glad others see that analolgy. No plan, no goal…let’s just play until the game shrills out that the game’s over and the game won. But, hey, Level ??? and so many points and that will be the starting point for the next game. Cold hamburgers, anyone?
One day, the history books will tell the unvarnished facts/truth about England’s empire–the sun never sets empire. Then, and only then, can we, the people, decide that their worldview must be eradicated so that this Earth can heal and a better way of being human, a saner relationship with our Mother Earth can be had. The books will say with verifiable facts that it was a reign of terror, based in greed, resource extraction, theft of land, murder and exploitation of indigenous peoples, monetization of food, water, the necessities of life, normalization of othering and the arming of their favored indigenous people which destroyed the balance of power, the creation of a group that named themselves “white” whose barbarism became the standard, the spread of a God/religion that justified their acts, no future thought, and their idea that they and only they controlled this Earth (white man’s burden) and, therefore, they could destroy it in bending this Earth to their selfish and ignorant will.
In 2026, we are seeing the consequences, the long range consequences of an empire that physically no longer exists, but whose worldview lives on in the minds of the ones who have risen to power.
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From a dense carpet of monkey grass to a recognizable bed of lilies!
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My alma mater was books, a good library… I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my curiosity. Malcolm X
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