1952\July\26 Saturday
Today is my Dads birthday.
Jabberwock and the Jubjub Bird decided that I should be Bandersnatch. It was not a decision made lightly. It was not because I was the next oldest male in the family line. They picked me because I was the one for the job.
We could not be anything ordinary like Aramis, Athos, and Portas, The Three Musketeers or Curly, Larry, and Mo, The Three Stooges.
Our family, friends, and the school teacher did not think much of these nicknames.
JABBERWOCK
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"
He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought-
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgeson
1832 - 1898
The Complete Illustrated Works of Lewis Carroll
edited by Edward Guiliano
Through The Looking Glass
And What Alice Found There
illustrated by John Tenniel
Chapter I
Looking-Glass House
pages 95 - 97
"When danger waits the tables and death is the busboy, it adds zest to the simple pleasures of life."
P. J. O'Rourke
Holidays In Hell
page 19
War is Hell.
General William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-1891)
George William (Bill) Newport
Copyrighted
26 July 1952
