®

                      Be a Mullings Subscriber! Click here.

Hark(en)! I Hear the August Story's Roar

Friday, July 12, 2002

• TITLE: "Hark(en)! I Hear the August Story's Roar" This is a take on an old, I assume, vaudeville bit where the nephew of a Broadway producer begs for a part in a show. After pestering him for months (in the Yiddish parlance of the time this would have been stated as "after hocking him a chinik for months �" Hocking someone a chinik (pronounced "CHI (as in eye) nick) literally translates to "sell someone a teapot," but the idiom means to annoy, as in "quit hocking me a chinik, already.")

  Anyway, after pestering him, the producer gives the kid a minor part in the show. The part calls for him to hear the report of a cannon and say, "Hark! I hear the cannon's roar."

  The kid practices and practices:
  "Hark! I hear the cannon's roar."
  "Hark! I hear the cannon's roar."
  "Hark! I hear the cannon's roar."

  Comes opening night, the theater is packed, the drama is going along swimmingly when it comes time for the kid to take the stage and deliver his line. The cannon goes off and the kid says, "What the hell was that?"

  Bah-rump-BUMP.

• "�dog days �" From Merriam-Webster's unabridged:

  Function: noun

  Etymology: back-formation from dog days, translation of Late Latin dies caniculares, translation of Greek h merai kynades; from their being reckoned in ancient times from the heliacal rising of the Dog Star (Sirius)

  1 a dog days plural : the period between early July and early September when the hot sultry weather of summer usually occurs b : a day in dog days : a hot sultry day
  2 dog days plural : a period marked by dull lack of progress

• "... Mike Allen ..." Here's a link to the Washington Post story on Harken Energy and George W. Bush.

• "... New York Times ..." Here is a link to the NY Times piece on the same subject.

• "... 5th Amendment ..." Here's the text of that Amendment:

  Amendment V

  No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

• "� State Department �" Here's the link to the State Department's Myths about Saudi Arabia" page.
  
  
          World War I Poster

  
  

•     Mullings' Catchy Caption of the Day:
  

  
  Inglewood PD. To Protect and Serve. GOT IT!?

  Photo: REUTERS/Fred Prouser ____________________________________________________________________________________