Pluto, We Hardly Knew You

Headline from the Tacoma News Tribune.

Every good headline deserves a song, and every good
ex-planet deserves a song. How many of you are
familiar with the Irish song "Johnny, I Hardly Knew
You"?

With their 'scopes and charts and 'scopes and charts
Hurroo hurroo
With their 'scopes and charts and 'scopes and charts
Hurroo, hurroo
With their 'scopes and charts and 'scopes and charts
Th'astronomers did disown you,
Oh, you always were our farthest planet
Pluto, we hardly knew you.

What of your moon that circled 'round?
Hurroo, hurroo
What of your moon that circled 'round?
Hurroo, hurroo
What of your moon that circled 'round?
"Too small", they say, still on our ground
Such a planet as you never was found--
Pluto, we hardly knew you!

What of your orbit, weird and strange (x3)
That ran in and out of Neptune's range
"That planet's orbit is too strange!"
Pluto, we hardly knew you!

You haven't your status, you haven't a moon (x3)
But in my heart you know, you still have room
I don't care if those scientists swoon!
But, Pluto, we hardly knew you.

They're making out their charts again (x3)
But you'll never be a planet again
No, you'll never be a planet again,
Pluto, I'm sorry for you

With their 'scopes and charts and 'scopes and charts
(x3)
Th'astronomers did disown you,
Oh, you always were our farthest planet
Pluto, we hardly knew you.

Apologies to the people that inadvertantly made this
song happen--Theodore Bickel (like HE'D read this,
yeah right) who put it in a songbook of his that I
have and Atwater-Donnelly, who were unlucky enough to
record it. Oh, well, I doubt they'd see it either...:)
Saro

P.S. Pluto, we hardly knew you!

On the other hand...

...Look at her eyes! Okay, I actually can't see much
emotion in those eyes. Actually, none at all. Oh,
well. It's a nice effect.

Actually, I should've written this weeks ago. We
finally saw Fiddler on the Roof, which may be my
favorite musical. As usual, my favorite person is the
eldest daughter. But apparently I am most like the
youngest daughter.

Anyway, if I were rich....doo doo doo doo doo
doo....(and grown up) I'd buy me a nice house and if I
were REALLY rich, I'd support myself while writing
full-time. THAT would be cool. But who would read MY
writing? Who reads this, for that matter? (Yes, Daddy,
Grandma, and any of my other regulars, I know YOU do.
But who'd BUY it?)

Anyway, at Tevye's last utterance of "on the other
hand", my sister was giggling, but between some
information from my information-giving aunt and some
"experience" (e.g. being "well-read") I wasn't,
exactly. Does he have to think out loud? Maybe we
could have Klezmer tunes in the background. Hm?
Well, who knows?
I'm "trying" to write a musical that my sister and I
will put on and another one that is completely a
flight of fancy.

Anyway, (my favorite word is anyway) we've been
keeping track of who is hotter, Luke or Han. At last
count it was Luke: 4; Han: 3; and Mixed or No Opinion:
2. One of the mixed is originally for Luke, the other
originally for Han. But they're leaning to the other
side.

Completely on the other hand I'm coming up with a
bunch of crazy ideas for yet ANOTHER story. It's about
three different people, Anna, her brother Enet (I made
that name up and it's NOT French or pseudo-French),
and their cousin Janet. It's sort of set in this
fantasy-time, which means it's nowhere and notime,
just somewhere and sometime. Anna is compassionate and
loving, Janet is adventurous and has great ideas and
Enet is quiet and gentle. Anyway, they each have their
own adventure where they see the good and bad of their
qualities (every quality really does have a bad side,
for example, if one is completely the politest of
polites, then one's name really ought to be Pollyanna
or something...)

Anyway, that's about all...
Saro

Spirituals

My favorite type of song is a spiritual. I don't know
exactly why, maybe because they are both my favorite
kind of music AND carry a special meaning for me...but
I do know that I like them a lot. Some of the most
common are really pretty, have a story I recognize,
and are really fun to sing (after all, slaveowners
thought that because their slaves were singing, they
were HAPPY), and yet they have this underlying message
of freedom...which is really cool. And a lot of times,
freedom was coded as "heaven" which adds to the
meaning of the song if you don't dig deeper into its
origins.

A lot of times, even if a spiritual has no particular
story it tells (e.g., it's not like "Go Down Moses" or
"Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho") I can figure out
what story it's about, if it's about one ("Then I'm
Goin' Home" for example...). And some of them are
about no particular story, but I find the concept so
beautiful ("Bright Morning Stars").

And my favorite is "Bright Morning Stars". If you hear
me singing it, you can't tell whether I'm happy, sad,
worried, angry, in a singing mood, or what. If you
hear me singing it, then singing a bunch of Christmas,
Easter, and other songs (spirituals or not), you know
I'm really worried and nervous. It truly calms me down
to sing, but what calms me down the most is to sing
spirituals, as well as a few Christmas and Easter
songs thrown in.

Anyway, I figured this all out in the car singing "Go
Down Moses" nice and quietly. As I recently told
someone in an email: "nobody minds me singing in the
car", so that's a big boredom buster AND
stress-reliever. Too bad it doesn't really lend itself
to Int'l airports and big honkin' jets...
Saro

Et cetera! Et cetera!

Some movies ought to be rated on whether or not they
make you cry.

Yesterday we saw the King and I, and I think it might
well be one of my favorite musicals. Prejudiced? Yes,
I know. It is. But it's a wonderful musical. Some of
the things can be explained away so you can enjoy the
musical and justify laughing at some of the jokes
yourself. (Two male elephants, for instance? Why,
anyone can forget details when they're excited!) That
means that for you there's a different explanation and
while it might have had a cruel intent you can laugh
at it privately at yourself. Or that you think it's
just amusing and you don't take anything else in
question. Anyway, it's a great musical and please
enjoy it. (Though Anna acts a lot like somebody I
happen to know...)
Saro