22 lines
1.6 KiB
Markdown
22 lines
1.6 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: 'Cats and Rats and Elephants'
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date: '2004-01-28T07:30:55-05:00'
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permalink: /cats-and-rats-and-elephants/
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tags:
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- 'random thoughts'
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---
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So this morning, I’m flipping through a copy of the [New Yorker](http://www.newyorker.com/) from several weeks back, and I stumble upon this [cartoon](http://www.cartoonbank.com/product_details.asp?mscssid=H1R7E57BNJQX8LRN3RBLTDCD2R48B1MD&sitetype=1&did=4&sid=69141&whichpage=2&sortBy=popular&keyword=unicorns§ion=cartoons). And next thing you know, I’ve got this song stuck in my head, part of which goes:
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> Oh, there were green alligators and long-necked geese
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> Hump-backed camels and chimpanzees
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> Cats and rats and elephants, but sure as you’re born
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> The loveliest of all was the unicorn
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The upshot of the song is, like the cartoon, that the absence of unicorns from the fauna of the present-day can be traced back to a Noah-ark-flood mishap, in this case that the unicorns were too busy playing and being lovely to recognize that they ought to get on the boat.
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But here’s the thing: I’ve only ever heard this song one place, and that’s on an LP I had as a child, which drew its title from another song about the last horse on the merry-go-round, who’s constantly trying to catch up with the others, only one day he looks behind him and suddenly figures out that he’s not last, but first!
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I haven’t heard anything off of that record since I was, probably, seven. And, given the tenacity of the cats and rats and elephants now populating my brain, here’s what I want to know: Why don’t I have this kind of recall for things I *read*?
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