Monday, December 31, 2007
Take Nash to Heart if you have Teenagers
“Children aren’t happy with nothing to ignore, and that’s what parents were created for” – Ogden Nash
Sunday, December 30, 2007
“Duck! Here comes another year!”
Another Nice Present of Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash Preferred over Jewelry for Christmas
A Lesser Known Ogden Nash Christmas Poem
God rest you merry, Innocents,
Let nothing you dismay,
Let nothing wound an eager heart
Upon this Christmas day.
Yours be the genial holly wreaths,
The stockings and the tree;
An aged world to you bequeaths
Its own forgotten glee.
Soon, soon enough come crueler gifts,
The anger and the tears;
Read the rest here
Speak Low as Jazz Classic
Bob Merkin of Massachusetts says that " The American comic poet Ogden Nash doesn't usually rise to the heights of Weill's other lyricists -- Brecht, Georg Kaiser, Ira Gershwin, Langston Hughes -- but "Speak Low" became an instant classic; every chanteusse and jazz great, piano or saxophone, has covered it for half a century, and as long as educated people keep falling in love and need a haunting love song in the background, "Speak Low" will keep being performed and recorded. Billie Holiday grabbed it immediately, as did her pal Sinatra."
Read the entire post plus the lyrics of Speak Low here. There is also reference to the clip from the Nash revival of "One Touch of Venus" on YouTube
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Because You All Know About Jabez Daws
Because You All Know About Jabez Daws
BY OGDEN NASH
Once there was an antelope
Who said, "I’ll write to Santa Clope."
"You mean, my son to Santa Claus,"
His mother told the antelaus.
"I know, but Mom it never rhymes –
I’ve tried it half a dozen times!"
And so he wrote: "Dear Santa Climes,
Do you have skate for antelimes?"
"My son, see here, this will not do,"
His mother told the anteloo.
"It’s Santa Claus! Now try again."
And so he wrote: "Dear Santa Clen,
I’d like some skates, I’d like a sled. . ."
Read the rest of the poem here
Did you Know
Bleak Future for this Poet in Training?
This Just In....
If You Like Nash Read to You
Re'sume'
Razors pain you;
Rivers are damp;
Acids stain you;
And drugs cause cramp...(Excerpt)
Gas smells awful;
You might as well live.
The Politically Correct Way to Say Merry Christmas to a Crowd
Not sure of the source. But if Ogden Nash did say this, he was , as usual, concisely on target...
“Merry Christmas to nearly everybody!” - Ogden Nash
Quoted here
Hating is an Art
Love and Hate
...
But hate is the verb that to me is superb,
And Love but a drug on the mart.
Any kiddie in school can love like a fool,
But Hating, my boy, is an Art.
-- Ogden Nash
Read the whole poem here
Winter Morning Poem
Ogden Nash
Winter is the king of showmen
Turning tree stumps into snow men
And houses into birthday cakes
And spreading sugar over lakes
Read the rest here
Christmas as the Antidote for War
Thanks to The Sailors Family for digging this one up.
Ogden Nash is Remembered in Mumbai
Mr. Nash Relished the Outrageous Rhyme
—Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash Crafted a Cautionary Tale for Santa Disbelievers
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Celery, Senility, Family Wisdom, Church, Ants & Fleas
A you can read in the last line of Senility and Family Court, he did not hesitate to express an occasional hard edge. An editor, especially of a major publication like the New Yorker, needed to brutally honest with writers and himself.
The Voice of Experience
In the old days people attended lectures for fun. Ogden Nash's poem, The Voice of Experience
A husband at a lectureTwitches his architecture.
He undergoes the lecturing
Like unanesthetized vivisecturing.
He's a glassy-eyed conjecturer
Of the ancestry of the lecturer.
Read the rest here
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
For those Facing 40
I have a bone to pick with fate,
Come here and tell me girly,
Do you think my mind is maturing late,
Or simply rotting early.
Ogden Nash Quoted here
Ogden Nash Explains Why
"Some primal termite knocked on wood;
and tasted it, and found it good.
That is why your Cousin May
fell through the parlor floor today."
Arkansas Man Uninterested in All Poets Except Ogden Nash Stink
Another example of Nash being able to inspire someone disinterested in 'poetry'.
Ogden Nash Met Many People
Quoted on this blog
Monday, December 17, 2007
Ogden Nash loved Christmas
The Chequamegon Symphony will perform a children's concert at Northland College interspersed with his poems. Read more here about this Harvard, WI event.
And that he will also be reprised at the Garfield Sr. High Christmas show in Woodbridge, VA.
Not to mention the Santa Clarita, CA Symphony's production of 'Animals Alive!' where once again, Ogden Nash verse will be the poetic interlude between each act.
What is behind the national trend of Nash at Christmas? Here is one potential explanation in this story about Nash being interwoven in an Illinois production of the 'Carnival of the Animals':
The "Carnival of the Animals," composed by Camille Saint Saens, is a single work, broken down into 14 smaller segments. Each segment was combined with amusing poetry by Ogden Nash and read by Mark Lebovitz of Media Relations.
"I sometimes go to dance concerts, and occasionally I don't exactly know what might be going on, but the fact that there's the music, which suggests certain animals, and then the poetry, which gives the audience an idea," Lebovitz, said. "It creates one big, enjoyable, understandable package."
Each segment is named after animals (or animalistic concepts), the music reminiscent of animal calls or their environments. The poems set a suitably lighthearted mood and keep the energy up from piece to piece.
In Creighton, OR, 200 year old 'Carnival' is also being presented with Nash.
Creighton is preparing the CYS for its 25th Anniversary Concert, to be held at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 16, on the stage at the LaSells Stewart Center. As part of the concert, Mayor Charlie Tomlinson will be reading poetry written by Frederic Ogden Nash in the 1940s to accompany Camille Saint-Saens’ “Carnival of the Animals,” written roughly 160 years before.
More detail here
ON's verse was also reprised at a Palm City, FL children's Christmas Show
And in Boulder, CO, High School show
And in Hertfordshire, England they believe 'The Boy who Laughed at Santa Claus' is apropos
Nash's Carol for Children
A Carol for Children
Ogden Nash
God rest you merry, Innocents,
Let nothing you dismay,
Let nothing wound an eager heart
Upon this Christmas day.
Yours be the genial holly wreaths,
The stockings and the tree;
An aged world to you bequeaths
Its own forgotten glee.
Read the rest here
Channeling Ogden Nash at Christmas
Christmas Hash
By Ogden Nash
My fingers ache from lugging parcels, I limp on battered matatarsals,
My tongue is dry from licking stamps, I’m lost in Christmas lights and amps,
I’m in that yearly Yuletide mess,
And so are you, I shrewdly guess...
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Doctor Prescribes Nash for Happy Marraige
If you want your marriage to sizzle,
With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you're wrong admit it,
Whenever you're right shut up."
Full article Fidelity in Marriage
Another Quote from the versifier on Marriage: "Marriage is the alliance of two people, one of whom never remembers birthdays and the other who never forgets."
Solace on Snow
A Word About Winter
Now the frost is on the pane,
Rugs upon the floor again,
Now the screens are in the cellar,
Now the student cons the speller,
Lengthy summer noon is gone.
Read the rest here
Sunday, December 2, 2007
That Ogden Nash was a Family Man
Nash Sticks to One's Brain
That First, Chance Encounter
In 1970 Ogden Nash was 68 and summering in Little Boars Head Island, NH. About 100 miles away I was an 11 year old camper at St. George's Hockey School in Middletown, RI. The summer dean, Mr. Baldwin, was a Nashophile and fond of sharing Nashisms with me. O.N. had attended St. George's and taught there too, so Mr. Baldwin certainly felt perpetuating Ogden's verse was within his mandate, even if the motley group of adolescent hockey campers were more prone to reading Street Rod magazine and the Sporting News than poetry. He found a willing ear in me as the 4 weeks of two a day sessions, led by the Cornell U. coach, droned on through August. I was open to poetry, as long as it was fun, as demonstrated by my having memorized and recited 'Casey at the Bat' aloud that spring in 6th grade for my ony 'A' of the year. Anyway, I stumbled upon Ogden Nash at a Nash historic site, while playing hockey in the refrigerated barn of St. Georges set above First Beach in summer. Which is an incongruous set of circumstances but one I'm very happy to have had.
Ogden is Missing from the Library
Less forgivable is the act of philistines in unmarked vans stealing ancient rocks from the stone walls in Ogden Nash's former summer town of North Hampton, NH.
The Thread Proves the Post
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Ogden Nash Audio
On the BBC site they have recorded excerpts from a Halloween, 1964 recording of their interview with Ogden Nash at the links below:
BBC Recording, You and Me and P.B. Shelley by Ogden Nash
The influence of James Joyce, picking and stealing and rhyming techniques 2 min 0
Women 2 min 7
Other people's descriptions of him 1 min 25
Ogden Nash's Custard Inspired Puff
from wikipedia:
"Puff, the Magic Dragon" is a song written by Leonard Lipton and Peter Yarrow and made popular by the group Peter, Paul and Mary in a 1963 recording.
The lyrics for "Puff" were based on a 1959 poem by Leonard Lipton, a nineteen-year-old Cornell student. Lipton was inspired by an Ogden Nash poem titled "Custard the Dragon," about a "Really-O, Truly-O, little pet dragon." Lipton passed his poem on to friend and fellow Cornell student Peter Yarrow, who created music and more lyrics to make the poem into the song. In 1961, Yarrow joined Paul Stookey and Mary Travers to form Peter, Paul and Mary. The group incorporated the song into their live performances before recording it in 1962.
The lyrics tell a bittersweet story of the ageless dragon Puff and his playmate Jackie Paper, a little boy who grows up and loses interest in the imaginary adventures of childhood and leaves Puff alone and depressed. The story of the song takes place "by the sea" in the fantasy land of Honalei (also the name of a real beach in Hawaii).
~~~~~~~~
Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called honah lee,
Little jackie paper loved that rascal puff,
And brought him strings and sealing wax and other fancy stuff. oh
Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called honah lee,
Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called honah lee.
Together they would travel on a boat with billowed sail
Jackie kept a lookout perched on puffs gigantic tail,
Noble kings and princes would bow wheneer they came,
Pirate ships would lower their flag when puff roared out his name. oh!
Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called honah lee,
Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called honah lee.
A dragon lives forever but not so little boys
Painted wings and giant rings make way for other toys.
One grey night it happened, jackie paper came no more
And puff that mighty dragon, he ceased his fearless roar.
His head was bent in sorrow, green scales fell like rain,
Puff no longer went to play along the cherry lane.
Without his life-long friend, puff could not be brave,
So puff that mighty dragon sadly slipped into his cave. oh!
Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called honah lee,
Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called honah lee.
Ogden's Observations on Conscience and Happiness
As much as I've always enjoyed Ogden Nash, the poet, I must confess that many of his writings have impacted me as if coming from the wisdom of a philosopher rather than the wit of an accomplished light verse mechanic.
And, among his many vignettes, there is one that seems to have stayed inscribed on my head, as if sentry in eternal vigilance."There is only one way to achieve happiness on this terrestrial ball," says Nash, "and that is to have either a clear conscience or none at all."
Ogden Nash loved Animals
"The lush, well-designed book, which features secret gatefolds and fun cutouts, includes selections by Ogden Nash, Theodore Roethke and others... but that's not why we're thrilled with this book. We just think it's gorgeous, and we're pretty sure you'll think so, too."
Ogden Part of Lancaster PA, Holiday Celebration
Nash part of Lews County, Washington Holiday Celebration
Following the Dec. 3 performance, there will be a “petting zoo” where children in attendance can come up on stage and meet the performers and see their instruments up close.
Custard the Dragon is one of the All Time Greats
A Present For Your Smart A.. Friend
Platypus - Sans Platitudes
Ogden's Legacy in North India
ON Retirement
— Ogden Nash
Thanks to The Retirement Quotes Cafe
How O.N. Continues to Inspire a Home Schooled Son
Isabel met an enormous bear,
Isabel, Isabel, didn't care;... Click-thru for the rest of this Ogden Nash gem.