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SONG CHALLENGE WINNER!
The Song Challenge:
Whilst cleaning up the old Song Challenge! files, getting ready for the Songbook's big move 'home', I found
several Challenge! ideas that seem to be tied together in some, like, ya know, cosmic way, man. ;-)
So, being that goddesses have to be cruel to be kind (oh behave, Amos!), I've decided to raise the bar
for the Whole Bag O' Chips by creating a new award --
The Double Dip Copper Cow Chip (with Sprinkles),
which will be awarded for connecting the dizzying dots between two or more Challenge! ideas in a song for any
Official Double Dip Dare from the Keeper of the Book. And for my first 'Official' Double Dip Dare, please do
not adjust your seat belts and consider the following . . .
Boys who play with their praties . . . -- (OSLO, Norway) Police have confiscated a potentially lethal
home-made cannon capable of firing potatoes up to 160 feet. Six youths in the seaside town of
Kristiansand in southern Norway used instructions on the Internet to build the weapon from everyday household
objects. "This home-made weapon is extremely dangerous both for those using it and those being
fired at," a police spokesman told the newspaper Faedrelandsvennen. The boys loaded potatoes down
a plastic tube, where an electric ignition device from a gas-fuelled barbecue was installed. By spraying
a flammable gas into the tube and sealing the open end with a cap, potatoes were converted into projectiles with
one push of the red ignition button. Police said the cannon was capable of launching any object
similar in size and weight to potatoes.
. . . grow up to be men with issues . . . -- London's Steve Bennett continues his quest to become the world's
most successful amateur rocket engineer, with all systems go for launching himself into space in a "test flight"
(to an altitude of 10,000 feet) in 2003 on a venture that most professional engineers called foolhardy, according
to a June story reported by the BBC. The more that is known about Bennett's mission (e.g., he
recently said it would be a rocket capsule made from a cement mixer, with modest installation and a small
computer), the more rocket scientists believe his launch will result in instant death. However, the
louder the criticism, the more certain of himself Bennett professes to be. He still rejects conventional
preparations such as wind-tunnel tests and g-force tests: "That is what the test flight is for," he said.
Why Am I Making Projectiles Boom? by Trapper
(Tune: Why Am I Painting The Living Room? - Lou and Peter Berryman)
(New words by Al Boyce 8/13/2001)
Trapper's Comments: I figured a TWO-PART challenge required a TWO-PART song... apologies to my two
favorite folksingers, Lou and Peter Berryman!
(Steve:)
The rent's three months late on our London abode
Our children run ragged in charity clothes
My wife's selling blood to buy tuna fish tins
While the nitro strapped to the cement mixer grows
And somebody's already BEEN to the moon...
Why am I making projectiles boom?
(Bjorn:)
I have a School Day off
Cause it's Saint Olaf's day
Friends have their sailboats out
On Kristiansand's deep-blue bay
While I'm shoving spuds in tubes
Why am I making projectiles boom?
(Steve:)
Mensa,s revoking my membership card
I've got dozens of callers from funeral firms
I giving the keynote at Darwin Awards
My mum-in law's checking my insurance terms
Werner von Braun slowly rolls in his tomb
Why am I making projectiles boom?
(Bjorn:)
Bridgitte and Ingrid called
They've got some Aquavit
They want to skinny dip
And soak up the summer heat
I'm sniffing butane fumes
Why am I making projectiles boom?
(Both - repeat 6 times per melody:)
Why am I making projectiles boom?
(Bjorn:)
I know how the Faedrelandsvennen will read
"Six Young Men Mashed By Potato Gun..."
(Steve:)
The BBC will report snidely at 6,
"Steve Bennett's space-ride is concretely done,
His rocket career was cemented too soon...
(BOTH:)
WHY ARE WE MAKING PROJECTILES BOOM?