- I played "Waltzing Matilda" for my students today, which not only depressed them but also depressed me a bit.
- There is a person, who shall for the time being remain nameless, who has not responded with the desired alacrity to an email from me. I frown at this neglectful correspondent.
- I have a ton of grading to do for tomorrow. (The grading, it never ends.)
- While I am happy that it's finally becoming cooler, I'm unhappy that my office at school doesn't actually have a heating vent (no, I'm not kidding - my office is the equivalent of a supply closet, honestly), which means that spending any longer than 20 minutes at a stretch in there means I'm cold cold cold.
- I have so much work to do that I don't even know how to talk about it, research-wise, and I've been ignoring it all.
12 years ago
4 comments:
Could you get a little portable heater for your office? We have to bring them into the grad cubicles all the time. (but don't leave them plugged in because you don't want to be blamed for burning the building down!)
Do you mean you played Waltzing Matilda the Australian song to your students? Being of Australian heritage, I was sung that regularly as a lullaby as a child, and it's one of my daughter's favourite lullabies too. I suppose it could be interpreted as depressing, but we've always thought of it more as an "up yours" sort of a song - that hungry jolly swagman's not going to let the oppressors grind him down and submit to their British handcuffs, forget that. I admit I did lie to my daughter when she started asking "what's his ghost" as quite a young child - I told her he jumped into the billabong and probably swam underwater to the other side and escaped. Which is possible.
Australia had a referendum to decide the national anthem (no longer to be God save the queen) in the 70s and I remember being so pleased that my parents voted for Waltzing Matilda instead of that silly Advance Australia Fair that got chosen in the end. I think it would have been a fine song. At least for those of us with convict heritage.
I suppose the really sad thing is that the jolly swagman and his oppressed mates never succeeded in having a proper revolution as the Americans did. Though Ned Kelly, another Australian hero (who also ended up dead of course but not by his own hand) had a go.
But perhaps you were thinking of some other Waltzing Matilda?
Hi Jill,
Actually, it's "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda," which is about the Australian soldiers that died at Gallipoli. The lyrics are here:
http://www.triskelle.eu/lyrics/bandplayedwaltzing.php?index=080.010.020.020
Oh that's even sadder....
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