So, for the second time in the last forty days and forty nights we can see grass outside our house. It's not the bowling-green carpet-like covering that most male English gardeners aspire to, but then not many bowling greens have to cope with being buried in snow for a month or more at a time. It is however a very welcome sight. With the warm weather and rain set to continue, I suspect that it will soon be revealed in all its soggy glory.
I won't attempt to set a lyric-punning teaser based on today's title as it is probably too obscure even for the best-versed readers. It is from Life In A Scotch Sitting Room, Vol. 2 EP. II by Ivor Cutler who is described in his entry in Wikipedia as a Scottish poet, songwriter and humorist. As the narrator recalls family outings when he was a child, his father points out thistles "there were lots of thistles in Scotland, we were soon well acquainted with them" and his mother "also became informative" and uttered the immortal line. I was first introduced to his work by a friend at college who invited me to listen to his show on BBC Radio 4 (probably early in 1990) and LIASSRV2EPII in particular became a part of our college folklore, often (mis-)quoted over the years. I obtained a copy of it on his CD Jammy Smears around the time of his death last year after inadvertently teaching the girls his song Lemon Flower in which his accent makes: I bit into a lemon fruit / the juice fell out and burned my foot into a rhyme. Wonderful stuff, highly recommended for anyone with a taste for gentle but bizarre humour.
I was complaining the other day about the prudishness of this country and in particular about breasts - I fail to see how a child might be corrupted by the sight of one or two. Not that I am particularly calling for public nudity. The impetus for this discussion was a combination of issues related to nursing (breastfeeding) in public and memories of the obscene over-reaction to Janet Jackson's (admittedly ill-advised) stunt at the 2004 Super Bowl (how time flies). Anyway, it turns out that New York State was the first state to produce pro-nursing legislation and as well as explicitly excluding nursing from the indecent exposure laws, also grants a woman a right to nurse in any public place where she has a right to be. So, I probably have nothing to really complain about.
And finally, at the risk of committing a breach of copyright I offer one more quote (a complete work in fact) from the late great Ivor Cutler. If your breasts are too large, you will fall over / Unless you wear a rucksack.
