Ode to a cup of coffee

Saturday, 10 July 2010 - There is a poet inside all of us. This is not what i would consider a thought provoking opening, or for that matter a real meaty start to a posting.  It is just so. Don't you know. The truth ignites, And turns on the lights. Ok, ok, that wasn't so good, but what can you expect from me at 0425hrs, a bottle of wine, and a day in the scorching heat?  I could have started with "There once was a girl from Nantucket".  Seriously, I thought I did ok with that one.

Today is Clerihew Day, names so in honour of the birthday of Edmund Clerihew Bentley. Eddie Bentley did not invent the British luxury car, nor is he the founder of Bentley College in Boston.  Eddie was a writer, who, in addition to a few detective novels, invented or rather made popular a four line rhyming poem - often biographical in nature.  This short but sweet wee poem became known as a Clerihew.  There are several more famous Clerihews out there, but here is mine...

There was a girl from Thunder Bay
Who moved to get away
She now lives on the west coast
She blogs and posts.

So, I haven't fully followed the 'script' as it were.  A Clerihew almost always uses just the person's name as the first line, and is in the format of AABB.  I got the alphabet part right.  It's a start. I could have been Dr. Seuss, but that role was already taken, and my long drawn out, badly rhymed tales of a coati and his rag-tag pack of pals didn't really have a children's audience.  Besides, all I could rhyme with Coati was Payote and I'm certain that would put me closer to the Alice in Wonderland stories. The pack of pals are from Colombia, Peru, Belize, and New Mexico.  Kind of like Alice in Central America really.

There was likely a real purpose to these four line poems.  Edmund Bentley published a book called Biography for Beginners.  Imagine getting through 11th grade history and merely having four lines about all the great figures in history?  I may have actually stayed awake and remembered who Cantor was and what he was famous for. (I did have to look that one up... he's the infinity guy from math class).  Four line chapters would have been brilliant... and would have got me out to the picnic tables so much sooner.  Why was History always scheduled before lunch?  Never first period - so you couldn't sleep through it 3 days a week, and it was never last period so you could skip out early.  No... it was second period and it took the full 75 minutes.

Today is also Hop a Park Day. It is kind of like a hop on hop off tourist bus.  You are supposed to spend the day hopping in to one park to enjoy it's spoils, and then move on to another park for whatever it has to offer. I live on the west coast (as my Clerihew says), and as such, could spend the remainder of July hopping parks. There are hundreds of parks in my immediate area, and each has something wonderful to offer. However, as a real city slicker, I get my fill of 'green' on the golf course.

That girl from TBay who moved to the coast
Loves her coffee the most
Log it, burn it, pave it she quotes
Build a Starbucks to tote.