Peanuts Begins by Charles Schulz for November 13, 2018

and Jack didn’t have adult supervision when he was jumping over a candlestick

Cradle falling sounds a bit violent.

Never was interested in the background of the song before today. Interesting that one theory on it is that it’s an allusion to a mother rocking her baby to sleep in her arms as if she’s the treetop. And once the baby is asleep putting them to bed in the cradle is “down will come baby, cradle and all”. Course that’s just one theory behind the song, but it’s better than the idea of negligence Lucy brings up, and which the lyrics suggest.

Many of the very old nursery rhymes and ballads were based on political events of the day. The wandering minstrels went from town to town singing about what had been happening in London Town. They had to disguise who the songs were about but the people knew. In those days the peasants could not read and write but they weren’t stupid.

Wikipedia has some interesting theories about the meaning of this song. but then anyone can post anything on Wikipedia, so…

Shari Lewis (via Charley Horse): When the bough breaks the cradle will fall, and if I were a baby… this is not the sort of thing I would want to hear at allllllll.

Am I the only one that sang the song in their head while reading this?

I never imagines a lullaby would be so gore.

If I had more adult supervision in my childhood I woulda had a lot less fun.

Tossing stuff over the shoulder is a bit that Peanuts characters have always been fond of. I grew up with these comics and when I was a kid thought that the toss-over-the-shoulder gag was a normal thing people did.