Jabber, Jabber, Jabberwock

JABBERWOCKY

Lewis Carroll

(from Through the Looking-Glass

and What Alice Found There, 1872)

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

  Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

All mimsy were the borogoves,

  And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

  The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun

  The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:

  Long time the manxome foe he sought --

So rested he by the Tumtum tree,

  And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,

  The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,

Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,

  And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through

  The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!

He left it dead, and with its head

  He went galumphing back.

"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?

  Come to my arms, my beamish boy!

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'

  He chortled in his joy.

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

  Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

All mimsy were the borogoves,

  And the mome raths outgrabe.

I love the Jabberwock. It sounds like complete nonsense, but there’s fun to be had squinting between the lines.  I found the poem at this website. dshaw@jabberwocky.com   A dusty place last I looked.

What started this was my purchase of the Tremors Attack Pack, a 4 movie DVD set.  I knew and loved the first two movies, but didn't even know about the later two till then.

As I first watched Tremors 3; Back to Perfection, the flying morph of the Tremors creatures first came on screen and I pointed at it, snapped my fingers twice, popped my forehead with my palm and yelled; "Jabberwock!"  and I hadn’t read the poem in years.  Then it launched itself with it's butt on fire!  Haw, rocket powered flying Jabberwock!  A natural boost glider.

There are many examples of evolved chemical warfare in nature. Webbing, irritants, venomous bites and stings are only the most obvious ones. The plant world, both land and aquatic don’t just compete for light but modify the medium in which they live, sometimes in exclusionary ways. The sessile ocean reefs are practically a warzone rife with other examples. 

The prime example for this blogpost would be the Bombardier Beetle, with it’s caustic binary chemical defense spray. From there it’s not such a big step to evolve a rocket propulsion system, improbable in a higher life form though it be.

For centuries we humans have made oxidizers for blackpowder  from our own urine, as well as the excretions of other animals.  Consider how history would’ve changed if we had had rocket powered Jabberwocks as an example.

A short BTW:  I googled the Vorpal Sword.  Another nonsense word at the time, but now it’s become a popular weapon in gaming and comics. Ran across’em a few times myself.

A longer BTW:  In Tremors 2; Aftershocks, when the first Shrieker comes into view it presages its' entrance with much bashing and crashing, louder and louder.  Earl and Grady are getting increasingly nervous and are pointing their rifle barrels higher and higher. Around the corner steps this little 3ft tall spud, they start to let their guard down, then it charges… It reminds me so very much of the old WB Merrie Melodies cartoon; Inki and the Mynah Bird. The jungle thrashes, the jungle crashes, one imagines terrible things; rabid rhinos, a constipated elephant or even worse!  Then out steps the Mynah Bird, tiny and totally blasé. Do not be fooled, DO NOT let your guard down! 

BTW to the BTW;  You're not likely to see Inki and the Mynah Bird on TV anymore due to racial censorship. 

3rd BTW to the second BTW; I cheered back when Warner Brothers Channel brought back the singing frog as its' mascot. I think it would be really cool if WB's New Looney Tunes brought back the Mynah Bird, at least as a cameo appearance, or six. The main characters have to pause the dialogue or chase for pedestrian traffic. The kind of gag Looney Tunes is well known for.  Or; Wylie Coyote thinks a Mynah Bird might be easier pickins' than Roadrunner...NOT!

Now the tune is stuck in my head!

BTW the fifth;  I've been sitting on this draft for a long, LONG time because it's a real rambler. It never gets any shorter though, and it still defies any attempts to divide and conquer.

Low Flight 2, The Heli Version

Today, while surfing the web for something completely different,
I ran across another version of Low Flight, this time written by
and for helicopter pilots.  I previously posted the original High Flight,
and then Low Flight written for Phantom II crews earlier this year.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                Low Flight

Oh, I've slipped the surly bonds of earth
And hovered out of ground effect on semi-rigid blades;
Earthward I've auto'ed and met the rising brush of non-paved terrain
And done a thousand things you would never care to
Skidded and dropped and flared
Low in the heat soaked roar.
Confined there, I've chased the earthbound traffic
And lost the race to insignificant headwinds;
Forward and up a little in ground effect
I've topped the General's hedge with drooping turns
Where never Skyhawk or even Phantom flew.
Shaking and pulling collective,
I've lumbered the low untresspassed halls of victor airways,
Put out my hand and touched a tree.

-Anonymous

It was a Gorey Show [sorry]

I can't remember the last time I was hot to go to a museum.
The Cosmodrome when I was in Kansas for LDRS 12?
That was a space related museum, no surprise there.
This time it was the McNay art museum here in San Antonio.
I've driven past it a 1/2 a million times without knowing it
was even there, this time we were pulling in. What snagged
me was a traveling exhibit of the art of Edward Gorey.
We aint in Kansas anymore, for sure.
We managed to get down there on the final day of the exhibit
and it was great. There were plenty of prints of course, a
mere drop in the bucket from a prolific artist, but mixed in
were occasional originals, and pencil layout sketches. One of
the prettiest displays was a cabinet with hand drawn and
watercolered envelopes that Edward sent to his mother over
the years. I'll spare you further descriptions, the book covers
above are adequate examples. The Doubtful Guest above was
my intro to Ed Gorey, it was read to me/us when quite young,
but then I grew up with hippy school teachers.
My brother and his Sylvia were the ones who went with me,
in fact drove me as I had no transportation at the time. Last
weekend was my birthday and they gave me Ed Gorey's
Amphogorey Again, a compilation.  Love it.

The website below is a .net, but it's actually a .com.
http://goreydetails.net/
Other than that go to Amazon for books or simply Google,
there's plenty of E.G. out there.

Low Flight

This is Low Flight. A poem written by pilots
or flight crews unknown, of the F4 Phantom II.
during the Vietnam War. I love pilot humor, I
grew up with it. Dry wit, best served with a
tall cold one, or three.
This is not parody, it was not written to mock
High Flight. I don't believe any pilot would.
Of course, they would mock their own aircraft,
other aircraft, or the pilots of other aircraft.
Most Air Force songs [or poems] are written to
existing music. The original words often provide
inspiration for the new.
Why does the Phantom have a flat belly?

Low Flight

Oh, I have slipped through swirling clouds of dust,
a few feet from the dirt.
I've flown the F4 low enough,
to make my bottom hurt.
I've flown in the desert, hills and valleys,
mountains too.
Frolicked in the trees,
where only flying squirrels flew.

Chased the frightened cows along,
disturbed the ram and ewe,
and done a hundred other things,
that you'd not care to do.
I've smacked the tiny sparrow,
bluebird, robin, all the rest.
I've ingested baby eagles,
simply sucked them from their nest.

I've streaked through total darkness,
just the other guys and me,
and spent the night in terror of
things I could not see.
I turned my eyes to heaven,
as I sweated through the flight,
put out my hand and touched,
the Fire Warning Light.

High Flight

Remember when there wasn't cable?
Remember when there weren't all night
info-mercials? At some apointed time
of night, the local broadcast station
would call it a day and shut-down the
station and let the tubes cool, or go
to a test pattern. I've always been a
night owl, even as a kid. I saw this
moment quite a bit. Most stations would
play a vid of the national anthem at
sign-off. Sometimes, one of the other
patriotic songs. If I was very lucky,
they would do the poem; High Flight,
with scenes of an F104 Starfighter
flying through the clouds. It was
always a patrio-ligeos moment for me.
I found this copy of High Flight in my
dad's papers long ago, and hung it on
the wall. Now that I've scanned it for
this post, it's going back on the wall
for the first time in years.