Over valley and hill there is no finer thrill

[venta]

Last night, I managed to reduce secutatrix, liriselei and andykittie to a spluttering heap with a single sentence. I am very proud of this.

However, it seems the reason I managed it is that they were deprived children.

They never had sung to them the song about The Hole In The Elephant's Bottom.

That's the only version I can find online, which is not the version I know - it's quite like it, but it's missing the chorus, and the words, though broadly similar, are not the same.

Note for the mother: do you have a recording of F&F singing it anywhere ?

Update: and if anyone can tell me how to get the mp3 to work properly under Firefox, I'd be grateful. It's not like I particularly want to listen to it, just that it's annoying that, despite me having the correct version of QuickTime installed, it doesn't work.

Comments

[venta.livejournal.com]

Well, how's about that. It works now. Thanks very much.

[stegzy.livejournal.com]

ahhhh...felix qui potuit rarum cognoscere causas....

**alters qt settings accordingly**

[wimble.livejournal.com]

Still doesn't work for me in Opera mind you.

Damn. Now I'm not going to get any work done today...

[venta.livejournal.com]

Blimey. I wasn't expecting you to break out in a rash of Latin.

[ringbark.livejournal.com]

sic friat crustulum

[venta.livejournal.com]

Unless that's some sort of Roman versio of "that's the way the cookie crumbles" you've lost me there. I don't recognise the verb.

Indeed it is

[ringbark.livejournal.com]

That's 5 points to Elizabeth for identifying "that's the way the cookie crumbles" in Latin. Because that _is_ the way the cookie crumbles.

Re: Indeed it is

[venta.livejournal.com]

Oooh, cool :)

So what's the verb ? Is it friare ?
I don't remember ever learning "to crumble" in Latin.
Come to that, I don't remember much of what I learned in Latin :)

Re: Indeed it is

[ringbark.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry: I'm not exactly sure. For years I misquoted it as "sic freat crustulum" before somebody equally without a life put me straight.
But I loved the elephant song, which I also had never heard.
To combine the two, did you ever stumble across "Winnie Ille Pu" which is the translation of the story of the bear? When Pooh answers the question with "oh, just lumping along", the Latin translation says "heffalumpabat".
Classic stuff, with brilliant phrases like "umbella" for a device to keep off the rain, and character names Christophorus Robinus, Porculus and Ior. To say nothing of Canga and Ru. But I digress...

Re: Indeed it is

[venta.livejournal.com]

I'm aware of Winnie Ille Pu, but have never actually read it.

I was too lazy at school to learn all the Latin case endings properly, which means I just have to look at the words and guess. Quite often it works, but it does mean that I'm prone to get my subjects and objects mixed up. I should probably get my Latin out and dust it off at some point, really.

Re: Indeed it is

[marjory.livejournal.com]

So did you have Mrs. Robertson? We had her after hours for what was referred to as 'Latin Club'. I didn't really learn my endings properly either, but you could get away with that for GCSE. I have a lingering tendency to use long words adn impress people by translating old gravestones.

(NB: Please don't let this be the point where you point out that you were actually sat in Latin Club too and I have to wonder just how senile I am, such a thing precluding even ever considering looking at Latin again let alone explaining the use of English gerunds to ppl)

Re: Indeed it is

[venta.livejournal.com]

Panic not, Latin Club had petered out by the time I considered attending.

I did Latin (with Mrs Robertson) as a GCSE while I was in the sixth form. It was really just another way of getting out of going to general studies lessons :)

Re: Indeed it is

[marjory.livejournal.com]

This still makes me a bit hard around the brain arteries, mind...

You had a way of getting out of GS? Hellfire! I was never so enterprising.

Did anyone ever get anything out of GS? I got my A at the end of it, but all we ever did was watch videos on BSE and wrought ironwork...

Re: Indeed it is

[venta.livejournal.com]

I have no idea what people got out of it - I never went to a single lesson. Took the exam and did OK without having watched a single video on BSE or wrought ironwork.

Doing four A-leves and the Oxford entrance exam seemed to be a good excuse for getting out of all kinds of things.

Plus timetabling was sufficiently complicated that if you were doing further maths, you had to miss the double games lesson. Or half of it anyway - which was fairly useless, since the sixth form were supposed to clear off to the Dolphin for the entire lesson. The games department tried to make those of the further maths students who weren't noted for active participation on extra curricular games (ie me and my friends) play table tennis in schoold during the other half of the lesson.

We made damn sure we were sufficiently late packing the table tennis stuff up and getting to the maths lesson that the maths teacher forbade us to play table tennis any more.

That the games/maths clash happened at all is nothing to do with the fact that Rachel S and I were helping with the timetabling that year.

I don't believe I attended a whole double games lesson from the age of about 13 onwards and - here's the good bit - I always had a legitimate reason why not.

Don't Encourage Me - I'm Dead Bored Today

[marjory.livejournal.com]

Right! This is me stopping answering now. Honest!

This is too clever for words. I never got out of anything, not once, not even on the grounds of music lessons or whatever. None of us ever managed the table-tennis dodge either; the buggers sent us round the hockey pitch for a stagger if they couldn't think of what to do with us, which involved some of our year becoming very good at finding hiding places around Plantation. No-one ever suggested that we help with timetabling. You are clearly of a superior order of beings.

God, I've got problems. I keep joking to people about going senile as I have trouble remembering what I did 5 minutes ago, but now I am recalling skool in mind-numbing detail. Apparently the earlier parts of life are the last to drain out of the memory.

Re: Don't Encourage Me - I'm Dead Bored Today

[venta.livejournal.com]

Blame the noisy Germans and their drilling.

A couple of years ago I discovered that I was being readlly dreadful at remembering recent events/where I'd put things/what I'd agreed to do etc. The answer appeared to be just doing too much and not sleeping enough - since then I've been trying to tone down the running around and sleep more, and am back down to standard levels of absent-mindedness.

Re: Indeed it is

[venta.livejournal.com]

Evidence in strage places. Yes, friare is "to crumble", hence friable (http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=friability&x=17&y=14).