Fascinating courtly intrigue and bloody power games set on a generation ship full of secrets―Medusa Uploaded is an imaginative, intense mystery about family dramas and ancient technologies whose influence reverberates across the stars. Disturbing, exciting, and frankly kind of mind-blowing.” ―Annalee Newitz, author of Autonomous

Friday, November 29, 2013

Yodeling Goats Drive Big Box Bookstore Into Bankruptcy


Years ago, my friend Eileen Rowan and I worked together at the same Borders, and somehow we got onto the topic of the yodeling goatherd song from The Sound of Music. We noodled together a goofy poem about yodeling goats. We didn't finish it, and I stuck it into a file and forgot it.

Then recently I was putting together a little display at the Heard Museum book store for a classic kid's book titled, The Goat in the Rug. I thought of our poem and dug it up. It only needed a couple of lines to be complete. So here it is, the yodeling goat song, written by two miscreants on a slow night at Borders:

The Yodeling Goat Song

This is the song of the yodeling goats
They never eat books but they eat lots of oats
They live in a castle surrounded by moats
Those dawdling, oat-eating, yodeling goats.

Sing yodely-ohdely-dohdely-doo
If you think they’re funny, then I think so too
Sing Yodely-ohdely-dohdely-day
They moved in last week and it looks like they’ll stay

The yodeling goats, the yodeling goats
They like to eat fish, so they have shiny coats
They read magazines and sport colorful totes
Those oft-toting, fish-eating, yodeling goats

Sing yodely-ohdely-dohdely-dorm
Don't buy them a jacket, 'cause they're always warm
Sing yodely-ohdely-dohdely-day
They ring all the doorbells and then run away

The yodeling goats, the yodeling goats
They don’t give a fig for the DOs and the DON’Ts
They don't cross their Ts and they don't mark their quotes
Those fig-tossing, mis-quoting yodeling goats

Sing yodely-ohdely-dohdely, please
Let's run in the meadows and climb all the trees!
Sing yodely-ohdely-dohdely-dug
There's a goat in the pen and a goat in the rug

The yodeling goats, they have golden throats
And sing acapella, they know all the notes
They tap dance all summer, then drink root beer floats
Those tippy-tap, rooty-beer, golden throat goats

Sing yodley-ohdely-dohdely-dend
This yodeling goat song, will it never end?
Sing yodely-ohdely-dohdely-dain
Come back here next week and we'll sing it again!



No comments:

Post a Comment