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<h1 id="cats-and-rats-and-elephants">Cats and Rats and Elephants</h1>
<ul class="post-metadata">
<li><time datetime="2004-01-28">28 January 2004</time></li>
<li><a href="/tags/random-thoughts/" class="post-tag">random thoughts</a></li>
</ul>
<p>So this morning, I’m flipping through a copy of the <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/">New Yorker</a> from several weeks back, and I stumble upon this <a href="http://www.cartoonbank.com/product_details.asp?mscssid=H1R7E57BNJQX8LRN3RBLTDCD2R48B1MD&amp;sitetype=1&amp;did=4&amp;sid=69141&amp;whichpage=2&amp;sortBy=popular&amp;keyword=unicorns&amp;section=cartoons">cartoon</a>. And next thing you know, I’ve got this song stuck in my head, part of which goes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Oh, there were green alligators and long-necked geese<br>
Hump-backed camels and chimpanzees<br>
Cats and rats and elephants, but sure as you’re born<br>
The loveliest of all was the unicorn</p>
</blockquote>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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!</p>
<p>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 <em>read</em>?</p>
<ul class="links-nextprev"><li class="links-nextprev-prev">← Previous<br> <a href="/how-it-turned-out/">How It Turned Out</a></li><li class="links-nextprev-next">Next →<br><a href="/uhhhh/">Uhhhh....</a></li>
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