Pulitzer Prize for Photography 1951

Continuing a look at the winners of the Pulitzer Prize for Photography (started in 1942) and the World Press Photograph of the Year (started in 1955). 

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Year: 

1951

Award:

Pulitzer for Photography

Photographer: 

Max Desfor, Associated Press 

Photograph:

“Flight of Refugees” 

Comments: 

Between 1950 and 1953 the US and various other United Nations countries were involved in the Korean War. Younger readers will be more familiar with the war in Korea as the setting of the TV series MASH. Viewers of that show will be aware that the conditions for the Korean civilians were difficult and that winters in Korea get very cold. 

Early in the war, in 1950, the UN forces won an important battle, the Battle of Inchon. The US Eighth Army, which made up most of the UN forces, raced towards the Chinese border in pursuit but were defeated at the Battle of Ch’ongch’on River after large numbers of Chinese troops entered the war on the side of North Korea. The UN forces were forced to retreat down the Korean peninsula, the 190km (120 mile) retreat being the longest in US history. 

Max Desfor (1913- ), an Associated Press photographer, was travelling with the frontline US troops, even to the extent of taking part in a parachute drop with the 101st Airborne Division. 

When the American troops began fleeing south from the combined forces of North Korea and China after the defeat at the Battle of Ch’ongch’on River, Desfor was with them. It was December 1950 during the Korean winter. 

In a 2010 commemoration marking the 60th anniversary of the start of the war Desfor recalled:

I liberated a jeep from someone and joined the retreat. With me were [Tom Lambert (AP) and Homer Bigart (NY Times)] and an army signal corpsman. We crossed the Taedong River on a pontoon bridge that had just been hastily erected by the army engineers ... On the south side of the river ... [civilians] were walking across where the ice was solid and clogged the river. A little farther upstream, where the water was still open, they were crossing in small boats. As we jeeped farther southward ... I saw what had been a sturdy span across the river, obviously recently destroyed by aerial bombs ... with Koreans fleeing from the north bank of the Taedong River, crawling through and into and above and onto the broken-down bridge, it was like ants crawling through the girders. They carried what little possessions they had on their heads or strapped to their shoulders, and on the north side I saw thousands more lined up waiting to do the same thing, waiting to crawl and join the rest of them. 

Desfor had trouble working his camera due to the plummeting temperatures. Falling off the bridge into the freezing river was likely a death sentence yet the thousands of refugees kept streaming across the bridge. Years after the war Desfor was struck by the "deathly silence" of the scene. 

He was surprised at winning the Pulitzer:  "I had no more idea of the fact I'd been entered than I knew what was on the film when I sent it in."

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Desfor covered the Pacific Theatre during World War II and was one of the photographers that photographed the Enola Gay crew when it returned from the Hiroshima Atomic Bombing. He was also able to record the Japanese surrender in 1945. After World War II he covered the Indonesian National Revolution in 1946 and the Indian Pakistan Kashmir War in 1947. In 1950 he returned to America after being stationed with his family in Rome, Italy. When war broke out he volunteered to cover the war taking a number of photos but it was the above image that won him a Pulitzer Prize. 

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In June 2010 Desfor, aged 96, returned to Korea for the 60th anniversary of the war. 

He commented: "I ask anyone who'll listen -- why do they celebrate the start of the war? They celebrate the start, of course, because it's never ending -- it's still going on." 

Max Desfor, in front of a photograph taken of him during the Korean War.

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One other thing: 

The Korean War took place from 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953. 

MASH aired between 17 September 1972 and 28 February 28 1983.

Those who wish to have a look at some photographs of various aspects of the Korean War can do so by clicking on the following link:

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/06/remembering_the_korean_war_60.html

One photo from that site, of an army field hospital, looks very much like the MASH 4077th.  The pic and the caption are:

A Bell evacuation helicopter of Marine Observation Squadron 6, carrying wounded Marines from the front lines, lands at "A" Medical Company of the First Marine Division in 1950. Naval corpsmen stand by with stretcher to unload the wounded men from helicopter "pods" and rush them to the operating and hospital tents in the background. (U.S. Department of Defense/TSGT. Charles B. Tyler) 

Barefoot and Pregnant

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During the past week I suggested to my wife that she should leave the thinking to me and that her role was to be “barefoot and pregnant”. Fortunately she took it in the humorous way it was intended but she did ask me to look into the origin of the phrase. . . 

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The full phrase is “barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen”, also sometimes “in the kitchen, barefoot and pregnant”. 

The meaning of the phrase is that a woman’s role within a marriage is to stay in the home and not socialise (therefore barefoot), do the housework and cooking (kitchen) and to have children during her child bearing years (pregnant). One commentator expressed it as “young, dumb, knocked up and kept at home”. 

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The earliest recorded use is in a 1949 article: "By early 1949, TWA was—in the words of its new president, Ralph S. Damon—both 'barefoot and pregnant.’" 

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A 1958 newspaper article by one Dr Joseph Peck, MD, It’s All Right to Keep Her Happy But, Men, Don’t Do Her Chores, Part 8 of 15 parts, can be read at: 

http://news.google.co.uk/newspapers?id=sM4TAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ruIDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4809,3737819&dq=barefoot-and-pregnant&hl=en

and contains the following: 

When man’s inventive genius relieved wives of the drudgery of housework by giving them mechanical gadgets, the womenfolk found time hanging heavily on their hands; so, to keep busy, they started sniping at man’s traditional position in society – which was in the saddle. With characteristic female guile, they infiltrated rather than battled it out in a fair fight. 

Man became perhaps not a willing but at least a nonresisting serf. The results would be ridiculous were they not so tragic. 

Thirty years ago divorce was uncommon, desertion was purely a male prerogative, and homosexuality was something we read about in French novels. Today, women collect more divorces than Indians collect scalps; wives run off and leave their husbands to care for their kids; and every hamlet has its queers. All because the old buck lost his horns. 

I am sure that women are more horrified by what has happened than are men. 

Some forty years ago, Dr Hertzler advanced a hypothesis which young women of today seem bent on proving correct, ‘The only way to keep a woman happy,’ he said, ‘is to keep her barefoot and pregnant.’ 

You can keep your wife contented, if not happy, without keeping her barefoot and pregnant, and the time to begin is before the bloom of the honeymoon fades. 

The rest of the article gives advice to husbands as to what chores they should do and what should be left to wives (“Have separate accounts but insist she pays as she goes”). There is also advice on how to treat wives (“Never get sore and cuss her out. Scold her but scold her gently.” “Remember, custom decrees that women must struggle a bit before they give up anything. Her surrender is her own form of enjoyment.”)

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The phrase has been linked to farming families in lower socio-economic areas, in days when farmers sought to have sons to help with the farm. In the words of one commentator who experienced it personally: 

It's just some old southern thing. Back in the day when farmers would drop 18 kids just so they had someone to help with the farm, the typical scene was daddy and the older kids in the field while momma was in the house the with rest of the kids literally barefoot and pregnant. Some women were pregnant damn near their entire lives back then. All the old pictures I have of my grandma are of her standing in front of that old piece of shyte shack my mom was raised in, barefoot, pregnant, with a kid in each hand. She had 10 kids and all my aunts and uncles worked the fields when they were growing up. They were poor as hell back then. This is before the government started paying people to have children (welfare).

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100212140211AAZmR2n

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In 1963, Arkansas State Senator Paul Van Dalsem addressed the all-male Optimist Club in Little Rock and commented on the American Association of University Women (AAUW), which had lobbied the state legislature for improved educational opportunities for African Americans: 

We don't have any of these university women in Perry County, but I'll tell you what we do up here when one of our women starts poking around in something she doesn't know anything about. We get her an extra cow. If that don't work, we give her a little more garden to tend. And if that's not enough, we get her pregnant and keep her barefoot.

The women of Perry County responded by picketing with signs that read “We've been pregnant—by choice, not by force." 

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The phrase has also been associated, in both meaning and words, to the German phrase and concept “Kinder, Kuche, Kirche”, meaning “Children, Kitchen, Church”, dating from the later 1800’s. That phrase described what was perceived to be a woman’s role in society. A similar phrase in Asian culture – “Good Wife, Wise Mother” – was popular in Meiji Japan. 

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"I think people honestly just want to see me as a mom and married and barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen. And I just want to say, 'Everybody, relax! It's going to happen.' " 

- Jennifer Aniston, 2011

Funny Friday

  

Some Jewish humour, for my friend Sam . . .

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Sam is a nice young man who has fallen in love with a girl he has just met. 

When Sam tells his father about her, the father just wants to know her family name. When Sam tells him that the girl's name is Ford, his father says that Ford is not a good Jewish name and he must forget her and go find a Jewish girl. 

Time passes and Sam finds another girl. Her name is Smith so his father tells him to find a nice Jewish girl with a nice Jewish name. 

More time passes and Sam finds another girl, but this time he is sure that he has solved the problem because the girl's name is Goldberg. "Goldberg," exclaims his father, "this makes me very happy because it's a real good Jewish name, and from a good established family." 

Then his father asks, "Is her first name one of my favourite names, like Rachael, or Rebecca?" 

"No Father," replies Sam, "It's Whoopi." 

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Two old guys, one 80 and one 87, were sitting on their usual park bench one morning. The 87 year old had just finished his morning jog and wasn't even short of breath. The 80 year old was amazed at his friend's stamina and asked him what he did to have so much energy.

The 87 year old said "Well, I eat Jewish rye bread every day. It keeps your energy level high and you'll have great stamina with the ladies." 

So, on the way home, the 80 year old stops at the bakery. As he was looking around, the lady asked if he needed any help. He said, "Do you have any Jewish rye bread?" 

She said, "Yes, there's a whole shelf of it . Would you like some?" 

He said, "Yes, I want 5 loaves." 

She said, "My goodness, 5 loaves...by the time you get to the 5th loaf, it'll be hard" 

He replied, "I can't believe it, everybody in the world knows about this stuff but me." 

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Mrs Goldstein finds that she has only six months to live. She calls the rabbi to visit her and tells him that she would like to learn Hebrew before she departs this life. “Why, Mrs Goldstein?” he asks. “That doesn’t matter,” she says, “Please just find me a teacher.” 

He does so and is amazed at how hard she studies and how quickly she progresses.  One day he says to her “Mrs Goldstein, please tell me, with only a short time left, why do you now want to learn Hebrew?” 

“Because,” she says, “when I die and go to Heaven, I want to be able to speak to God in His native tongue.”  

“But what if you go to the other place?” he asks. 

 “It doesn’t matter,” she replies, “I can already speak Hungarian.” 

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There's big controversy on the Jewish view of when life begins. 

In Jewish tradition, the foetus is not considered viable until after it graduates from medical school.

Anecdote: Peter Ustinov

  

  

Going through the metal scanner at court last week brought to mind a story about Peter Ustinov, who was not only a talented actor and writer, but also a superb linguist and a mimic of sounds. 

Ustinov once recounted that as he was going through the metal scanner at Athens airport he noticed that the plug at the end of the scanner’s electrical lead was not plugged in but was instead lying on the floor in front of the power point. 

As Ustinov passed through the scanner he mimicked the “beep beep beep” sound that it would have made on detecting metal. To his astonishment the security personnel spun around and looked not at him but at the plug. 

(Ustinov later learned that the airport cleaning staff regularly disconnected the leads to plug in their cleaning equipment but that they were not authorised to reconnect the scanners. The security personnel, who were authorised, left the leads unconnected to save having to deal with the extra work and requirements entailed in an alarm being set off). 

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About Peter Alexander Ustinov: 

· Born in London in 1921 of a father who had served in the German army in WW1. His father worked for the German Embassy in the early 1930’s and began working for MI5 from 1935, also becoming a British citizen, thereby avoiding internment. Ustinov’s mother was of Russian background. 

· Died in 2004 of heart failure, in Switzerland, where he lived. 

· Served in the British Army during World War II, as a private soldier, and was batman to David Niven while writing a Niven film. 

· Was an English actor, writer, dramatist, filmmaker, theatre and opera director, stage designer, author, screenwriter, comedian, humorist, newspaper and magazine columnist, radio broadcaster and television presenter. 

· Was a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF from1969 until his death. Also raised funds for UNICEF. 

· Winner of Best Supporting Actor Oscars for Spartacus (1960) and Topkapi (1964). 

· Spoke English, French, Spanish, Italian, German and Russian fluently, as well as some Turkish and modern Greek. He was proficient in accents and dialects in all his languages. 

· Was a witness to the assassination of India’s Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. On her way to be interviewed by him for a documentary for Irish television, at her residence, she was riddled with bullets fired by two of her bodyguards.

More Street Art

Iconic Photographs: Lady Diana

There has been a lot of fuss about Prince William’s other half, Lady Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, having been photographed sans top whilst on holidays in France. Understandably the Prince is upset, no doubt not wanting the hoi polloi to ogle his wife’s rack, but it does raise some interesting questions: 

• Were they alone in the chateau? 
• If not, had the staff been warned the balcony was off limits or was it acceptable for them to have a quick look, like Tom who peeped at Lady Godiva? 
• Did it not occur to either Mr or Mrs Prince that they might be photographed and that going topless in that very visible spot at that time might be a tad unwise? 
• Has it now occurred to security that if the royal couple could be photographed with a long lens, that they would be equally accessible to a telescopic sight? 
• Where was security and what, if anything, had they done to safeguard the RC?  
• What is the point in seeking an injunction to restrain further publication when the pics are all over the internet?
• Are the legal proceedings to restrain publication of further, more intimate pics, as has been suggested by the French magazine people? 

All questions for another time and place, however.

An official Palace statement denounced the taking and publication of the photographs as reminiscent of the "worst excesses" of the paparazzi during the life of William’s mother Diana, Princess of Wales, who died in a high-speed car chase in Paris in 1997 when being pursued by photographers. 

Diana’s unhappy introduction to the paparazzi and those paparazzi excesses came much earlier than the chase that led to her death. 

Born on 1 July 1961, she was aged only 19 when her engagement to Prince Charles was officially announced on 24 February 1981. Charles was 32. 

Shy and reserved, working as a playgroup (pre-school) assistant in London, Diana had been recognised as a special someone in Charles’ life as early as July 1980. In the words of Sun photographer Arthur Edwards: "I arrived at Cowdray Park polo field in Sussex; following up a tip that Prince Charles was there with a girl called Diana. I thought that he can't be running around with a teenager! It was only two weeks later, when I saw them together at Balmoral, that I realised the romance was on.” 

The public was hungry for news and photographs of the young girl who had captured Charles’ heart. She became a target for paparazzi but remained open and friendly towards the photographers who clamoured for pictures. She was an innocent in a game where she did not know that there were no rules. 

Photographer Arthur Edwards contacted nurseries in the west end of London, asking whether Lady Diana Spencer worked there, until he located her at a kindergarten in Pimlico. Edwards spoke to her and asked her to pose for some photographs. She agreed to do so but insisted on some of the children from the nursery being included. Unbeknownst to Diana, she had been posed with backlighting. 

According to Summers: “Halfway through the picture session, the sun came out and I saw for the first time what beautiful legs she had. Later that afternoon, I went back to the nursery and told Diana about the photograph. She blushed, and replied 'I'd hate to be known as the girl who didn't wear a petticoat.' ” In an another interview years later, Edwards commented “..the sun came out and made her skirt completely see-through. The shot made the front page of The Sun and people still ask me about it today." 

This would not be Diana’s only blunder. The shy, naive and nervous 19 year old was poorly advised in making her debut on 9 March 1981 in a dress that accentuated her cleavage: 

That same young innocent became one of the world’s most beautiful women, a style and fashion icon and a devoted mother:

Quote: Anonymous

A Thorny Question

Byter Steve, aka the Squire of Razorback, sent me an email back in July that read in part:

Following on from your 23^rd July Persian Proverb Bytes, Otto, do you know where the following phrase comes from and what film it is in? I know the film, but I don’t know the source (unless of course it is the work of the writer of what is a marvellous script). . . “step outside and smell the thorns!”

In a follow up email a day or two ago, Steve queried the lack of response.  He chortled, chuckled and chided that he may have stumped me, predicting “a tirade of unfamiliar smug comments” and “an expression of joy, the likes of which you have never experienced”.

It’s hard to believe, reading the above, that Steve is a mate.  Still, in friendship but with equal relish, I say to Steve: “On your bike, Squire.”  I had in fact looked into it at the time, I just hadn’t gotten around to writing it.  Here it now is.

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The phrase comes from the 1998 movie Meet Joe Black:

Drew:

You’ll be farting through silk.

You’ll sell your stock.  You’ll be positively, truly rich. 

You can stop kissing ass.

What’ll it feel like to be a man?

Quince:

I’m going to expose you.

Drew:

Okay.  Go right ahead.

You tell William Parrish how you betrayed him in a secret board meeting.

Tell Allison how you helped her father lose his company.

It’s just life, Quincie.

Wake up and smell the thorns.

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The phrase is believed to have been written for the movie script and is a play on the words “Wake up and smell the coffee”.  That phrase means to face reality and is often used to point out facts to someone who is unable to see them on their own.  The phrase was popularised by Ann Landers in her advice column in the 1960’s but she may not have originated the phrase.

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Some thorny thoughts and comments: 

________________________________

“He got up in the end and looked around the hollow room.  On his knees he went to the pile of rubbish and pulled it apart.  There were squares paper, dozens on which she had been writing in huge unsteady letters about Eeny, Meeny, Miney and Mo, and about the world being a funny place.

He read it through as she had written it. 

’Oh, but this world’s a funny place,

And yet it’s hard to beat.

With every rose you get a thorn . . .’

He remembered writing it for her.  So she could learn it.  He remembered Tasker writing ‘Don’t it get on your tits?’ as a last line.

-  Leslie Thomas, The Virgin Soldiers 

________________________________

There's no dearth of kindness in this world of ours; only in our blindness we gather thorns for flowers. 

-  Grantland Rice

________________________________

    

“There is nothing more dreadful than the habit of doubt.  Doubt separates people.  It is a poison that disintegrates friendships and breaks up pleasant relations.  It is a thorn that irritates and hurts; it is a sword that kills.”

= Buddha

 ________________________________

“A thorn defends the rose, harming only those who would steal the blossom.”

- Chines proverb

 ________________________________

“He who wants a rose must respect the thorn.”

- Persian proverb

 ________________________________

“No rose without a thorn, or a love without a rival.”

- Turkish proverb

 ________________________________

“Even a small thorn causes festering.”

- Irish proverb

 ________________________________

“Instead of complaining that the rosebush is full of thorns, be happy that the thorn bush has roses.”

- German proverb

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The expression “thorn in {one’s] side”, meaning a person is an irritation (or “pain in the arse”), comes from the Bible where Paul mentions having a “thorn in the flesh” to stop him becoming proud.  The “thorn” is not identified, it could have been illness.

Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.  Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.  But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.  That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10 (New International Version)

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Bertie was reading his latest book in the library.

On the very first page he came across an unfamiliar word. So he called out to Jeeves.  "Jeeves, what is this 'fox pass'?"

"This what, sir?"

"'Fox pass', Jeeves."

"Oh, that would be 'faux pas': a French phrase, sir, pronounced 'foe pa'; which literally means a 'false step' but is equivalent to 'putting your foot in your mouth' in English.

"Yes, dash it, whatever."

"Well sir, let me explain it this way. Do you remember last weekend when Miss Plushbottom came to stay for the weekend?"

"Yes."

"And do you remember how on Sunday morning you gave her a rose and pricked your finger on a thorn?"

"Yes."

"And do you remember how, later, at breakfast, Miss Plushbottom asked you, 'Is your prick still throbbing, Bertie?', and I dropped a pot of marmalade?"

"Yes, Jeeves."

"Well, that, sir, was a faux pas . . . ."

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Henry Lawson: Past Carin'

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I was discussing Henry Lawson’s poem Past Carin’ with someone yesterday and looked for it on Bytes, only to find that I had never reposted it from the email days.  Bytes was originally an email that was sent to a small group of friends but it grew so large that my daughter turned it into a blog.  I reposted quite a number of the emails on the blog but overlooked Past Carin’.  

Here it is, from December 2009. . .

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Watching the DVD series of the old Oz classic "All The Rivers Run", I came to the episode where the steam paddler "Philadelphia" is stranded up the Murray because of drought and low water. Whilst so stranded, the people of the boat meet with a farmer, Mr Slope, and his wife. They live in a small hut in a barren landscape. Mrs Slope explains that all the trees died when the river flooded and the soil went sour. It is clear that his wife has been made hard by the land and the conditions in which she lives, it is almost as though she has had the gentleness, feeling and emotion sucked out of her by the land. She later shows Sigrid Thornton the graves of her two children. The scenes were so close to Henry Lawson's poem "Past Carin' " that he could have been writing about her. Perhaps the scriptwriters took their story from the poem.

The poem and some biographical notes about Henry Lawson follow.

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It’s a sad thing when Henry Lawson (1867-1922) is known to the younger generations today only as “the dude on the ten dollar note”.

One of Australia’s greatest poets and fiction writers, he is also credited with being the first poet to capture the Australian way of life.

Born of a impoverished family on the goldfields, Henry Lawson had a poor education but was supplied large numbers of books by his mother.  Shy and sensitive, he was unlike the other bush boys, so much so that even his mother thought him strange.  At age nine an ear infection left him partially deaf; by age fourteen he was wholly deaf.  As a result he was tormented by the other school children, making him even more of a loner, although it also instilled a keen observation of people.

Whilst working at various jobs he began writing poetry, eventually becoming published in The Bulletin.  Lawson’s first published poem was in 1888; in 1892 the magazine paid for an inland trip.  There he experienced the hardships and harsh reality of life in the drought-affected outback.  Those experiences were reflected in his poems and in fiction such as “The Drover’s Wife”.  His depictions of the grim reality of outback life was far removed from the romantic idyll depicted in Banjo Patterson’s poetry.  Where Patterson wrote of brave horsemen and beautiful scenery, Lawson wrote about the loneliness, hardship and grim desolation of life in the bush.  His poem “Past Carin’” and the short story “The Drover’s Wife” have been described as the first accurate depictions of the Australian way of life.

His debates in verse with Banjo Patterson in the pages of The Bulletin became known as the Bulletin Debate, giving rise to spirited debating and some fine poetry.  Read about the debates at:

http://bytesdaily.blogspot.com.au/2010/06/bulletin-debate.html

Lawson’s later life was as sad as his earlier years.  A marriage which produced two children was unhappy and failed; he became an alcoholic and was frequently seen begging, often at the Circular Quay turnstiles.  He received gaol terms for drunkenness and failure to pay alimony and not surprisingly suffered from depression.

A friendship between Lawson and the elderly Mrs Isabella Byers resulted in the alleviation of some of his difficulties.  Herself a poet, she regarded Lawson as Australia’s greatest living poet and assisted him in his dealings with publishers, establishing contact with his children and seeing him through his mental and alcohol problems.  The friendship lasted 20 years until his death in 1922 of a cerebral haemorrhage.  He was buried in Waverly Cemetery, the first person to be granted a NSW state funeral.

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“Past Carin’” is a sad and grim description of outback life, harshly descriptive of its hardships, loneliness and heartbreaks.  One commentator has described it as “unremitting bleakness so sympathetically portrayed… The strong, determined woman finally beaten by her lot.”  She wants to be “past carin’” because it will stop the pain whenever the things she loves are cruelly snatched from her by the harsh Australian land and its hardships.  Whereas the various stanzas have her declaring that she is now past caring, the last stanza shows that she is not.  Although her life in the bush has been one of grief, loss, desolation, loneliness and despair, she still cares, quite a deal, but she wishes she didn’t.

How powerful are the lines about her children:

I've pulled three through, and buried two
Since then -- and I'm past carin'.

or about her husband:

He's drovin' in the great North-west,
I don't know how he's farin';
For I, the one that loved him best,
Have grown to be past carin'.

 As she says, the girl who cared was the girl who waited long ago.

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Past Carin’

Now up and down the siding brown
The great black crows are flyin',
And down below the spur, I know,
Another `milker's' dyin';
The crops have withered from the ground,
The tank's clay bed is glarin',
But from my heart no tear nor sound,
For I have gone past carin' --
Past worryin' or carin',
Past feelin' aught or carin';
But from my heart no tear nor sound,
For I have gone past carin'.

Through Death and Trouble, turn about,
Through hopeless desolation,
Through flood and fever, fire and drought,
And slavery and starvation;
Through childbirth, sickness, hurt, and blight,
And nervousness an' scarin',
Through bein' left alone at night,
I've got to be past carin'.
Past botherin' or carin',
Past feelin' and past carin';
Through city cheats and neighbours' spite,
I've come to be past carin'.

Our first child took, in days like these,
A cruel week in dyin',
All day upon her father's knees,
Or on my poor breast lyin';
The tears we shed -- the prayers we said
Were awful, wild -- despairin'!
I've pulled three through, and buried two
Since then -- and I'm past carin'.
I've grown to be past carin',
Past worryin' and wearin';
I've pulled three through and buried two
Since then, and I'm past carin'.

'Twas ten years first, then came the worst,
All for a dusty clearin',
I thought, I thought my heart would burst
When first my man went shearin';
He's drovin' in the great North-west,
I don't know how he's farin';
For I, the one that loved him best,
Have grown to be past carin'.
I've grown to be past carin'
Past lookin' for or carin';
The girl that waited long ago,
Has lived to be past carin'.

My eyes are dry, I cannot cry,
I've got no heart for breakin',
But where it was in days gone by,
A dull and empty achin'.
My last boy ran away from me,
I know my temper's wearin',
But now I only wish to be
Beyond all signs of carin'.
Past wearyin' or carin',
Past feelin' and despairin';
And now I only wish to be
Beyond all signs of carin'.

Funny Friday

Caution: risqué content.

Readers who are subscribers to this blog, and who therefore receive their Bytes as emails, will have noticed some glitches in the last few days.  For reasons unknown to me, the formatting has been showing at some points, which is annoying in that nothing shows when I check it before posting.  My apologies, I am meeting with our computer techie tomorrow and I hope he will diagnose and fix the problem.

That also introduces the theme for this week’s Funny Friday:  mistakes . . .

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A new business was opening and one of the owner's friends wanted to send flowers for the occasion. They arrived at the new business site and the owner read the card; it said "Rest in Peace".

The owner was angry and called the florist to complain. After he had told the florist of the obvious mistake and how angry he was, the florist said. "Sir, I'm really sorry for the mistake, but rather than getting angry you should imagine this: somewhere there is a funeral taking place today, and they have flowers with a note saying, 'Congratulations on your new location.' "

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An executive was in quandary. He had to get rid of one of his staff and had narrowed it down to one of two people, either Debra or Jack. It would be a hard decision to make, as they were both equally qualified and both did excellent work. He finally decided that in the morning whichever one used the water cooler first would have to go.

Debra came in the next morning, hugely hung-over after partying all night. She went to the cooler to get some water to take a couple of aspirins and the executive approached her.  He said, "Debra, I've never done this before, but I have to lay you or Jack off."

She replied "Could you please jack off?  I have a terrible headache.".”

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A plane had three passengers: a priest, a boy scout and the Brain of Britain.

The pilot came from the cockpit wearing a parachute, stated that the plane was in auto pilot mode and that the plane would crash in a few minutes.  He also said that there was a more serious problem, there were three of them and only two parachutes so they would have to decide who was not going to get a parachute. Then he jumped out of the plane.

The Brain of Britain said, "I have to have a parachute as the world definitely needs me because I am the Brain of Britain.”  Then he grabbed one, put it on and jumped out of the aeroplane.

The priest turned to the boy scout and said, "I am ready to meet my Maker. I have lived a full and fruitful life, please  take the parachute and go and make your mark on the world."

To which the boy scout replied, "No, Father, we can both go.  The Brain of Britain jumped out with my rucksack.”

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Corn Corner:

Did you hear about the nervous bank robber on his first job?  He said to the teller “Don’t stick around, this is a fuck up.”

Quote: Charles V

“I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men, and German to my horse.”

- Attributed to Charles V (1500 – 1588), Holy Roman Emperor

Charles V was effectively the first King of Spain, from 1516 to 1556.  In principle he was from 1516 King of Aragon and from 1516 guardian of his insane mother, queen of Castile who died in 1555. Upon his mother’s death he became full king, ruling from 1555 to 1556, and was Holy Roman Emperor from 1519 to 1556.  In 1556 he retired, abdicating in favour of his younger brother Ferdinand 1 and his son Phillip 11.

Although there has been conjecture as to whether or not Charles V did actually speak the above words, the sentiments are consistent with views he expressed on other occasions.  One author, Girolamo Fabrizi, wrote in 1601:

“. . . another, who was German, related that the same Charles V sometimes used to say:

if it was necessary to talk with God, that he would talk in Spanish, which language suggests itself for the graveness and majesty of the Spaniards;

if with friends, in Italian, for the dialect of the Italians was one of familiarity;

if to caress someone, in French, for no language is tenderer than theirs;

if to threaten someone or to speak harshly to them, in German, for their entire language is threatening, rough and vehement"

Compare with:

“A German singer! I should as soon expect to get pleasure from the neighing of my horse.”

- Frederick the Great on being asked to listen to a female German singer

Frederick 11 (1712 -1786), aka Frederick the Great and “Old Fritz”, was a King of Prussia noted for being a brilliant military campaigner.