For Christmas, H got this Little People garage that came with a tow truck and mechanic, and a little sports car and driver. He absolutely LOVES this toy, so we play with it all the time. The other day, we were playing, and for some reason I took a closer look at the Little People that came with the toy, and noticed this:
If you look closely, you'll see that the driver has a CELL PHONE in his hand. Yeah. No wonder his car is at the garage. He probably got into an accident because he was talking on it while he was driving.
Also, H has this book of traditional nursery rhymes that someone gave him, and he's been pulling it out of the bookcase for us to read a lot lately. The first rhyme in the book goes "Old Mother Goose when she wants to wander, rides through the air on a very fine gander." Is it me, or does that not rhyme? Did people really used to say "gahn-der" or did this never rhyme? And while I'm on the subject, am I the only one that thinks traditional nursery rhymes are more than a little bizarre?
Yes of course nursey rhymes are bizarre. It is because they usually refer to things from long long ago.
Like 4 and twenty black birds baked into a pie - they actually used to do this.
The cell phone toy is Ca-razy!
Posted by: Stacy | February 29, 2008 at 01:17 PM
The nursery rhymes are SO WEIRD. Some of them I just have a hard time singing altogether because I just keep going, "WTF?" the whole time I'm trying to sing.
Also, yeah, that is really bizarre that the modern-day Little People car guy has a cell phone in his hand. I guess maybe they figure this is what most kids see? Yikes.
Posted by: Karen J. | February 29, 2008 at 04:04 PM
Actually, I don't think they did used to bake blackbirds in pies. :) "Sing a Song of Sixpence" has its origins as a coded message used to recruit pirates. This is pretty well confirmed, not an urban legend.
http://www.snopes.com/lost/sixpence.htm
That doesn't make it any less odd, of course; in fact, it makes me wonder why on earth we recite to our small children. :)
Posted by: Stinky | February 29, 2008 at 04:18 PM
That is hilarious the driver has a cell phone in his hand! EH has an old nursery rhyme book...i.e. before they started being edited to be more PC or whatever and that are definitely strange!! I love that Ring Around the Rosies is about the Plague, I think I will hold off on explaining that one! :)
Posted by: beth | March 03, 2008 at 08:48 AM
You want bizarre children's tales, eh? I give you....Struwwlepeter!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struwwelpeter
Them are some f'd up children's stories. Truly.
As for the other, I always thought it began
"Goosey, goosey, gander
Where shall I wander?"
and it ends up with someone chucking a senior citizen down a flight of stairs since he wouldn't pray.
Niiiice :-)
Posted by: joe | March 05, 2008 at 05:44 PM
I think the cell phone thing is new? We have that toy from a few years ago and I'm fairly sure there's no cell phone driver (way to go, Little People). Now I'm going to have to comb through our mammoth bin of Little People and see if any of them do have a cell phone!!
Posted by: Lissie | March 17, 2008 at 04:52 AM