Cul de Sac by Richard Thompson for November 30, 2014

Children sure loathe it when their parents do embarrassing things.

Hurray for Madeline! What a free spirit! She knows how to have fun along with Alice!

Embarrassing one’s children in public is one of life’s great joys. One small measure of revenge for all the outrageous stuff they pull on you. Even better when they’re teenagers. Singing and dancing seem to be particularly effective.

You might be even more embarrassed if you could see yourself on that man hole cover, Alice.

doing silly things, keeps you young thinking and feeling.

For those of you who don’t know the rest of the song (it’s sung to the tune of The Stars and Stripes Forever):

Be kind to your friends in the swampWhere it’s very very damp [make it rhyme with swamp]Now you may think this is the endWell it is.

“where it’s always so cold and damp…”

“where the weather is cold and damp.”

Or Petey can play his oboe.

“Yes, folks, it’s the Otterloop Family!Petey on Oboe… (Heenk!)Peter on Harmonica… (Squeenk!)Madeline singing… (Honk!)And Alice as the embarrassed daughter… (Eek!)”

Now we know where Alice got her dancing talent!

My mom always dances like that to my songs. For some reason, she thinks it’s funny when I complain.