Posts filed under ‘G’
Gobbles
by Marin Iorda (1901-1972); N. Batzaria (1874-1952)
Gobbles is a black boot now,
On his stool he plies for fare.
Everything he’s tried so far
Ended up in bleak despair.As he sits twiddling his thumbs,
There’s his first chance to get paid:
“Shine ‘em bright an’ on the double
If you be black boot by trade,”Says a man all dressed in white,
Who starts reading… What? You’ve guessed!
It’s the very sheet you’re reading,
It’s the mag’zine you love best.And he’s laughing as he reads,
While our hero shines away,
“Well, I never! That’s so funny!,”
Gobbles hears the client say,And he looks up from his job.
When the mag’zine meets his eye,
He’s so overjoyed he’s jumping
Off his stool. He jumps up high.He is trying hard to read it –
“Hey, this stuff is great! I say!” –
And he wields his brush at random,
Brushing each and every way.Gobbles giggles as he’s brushing,
At his job he’s most astute.
When he’s finished half the business,
He asks for the other foot.Have a look now at the man,
He is blackened to his knees,
He is speechless, he is stunned
When he looks down and he sees.“What’s that, boy?,” he yells at Gobbles
As he boxes both his ears.
Gobbles laughs as he retorts,
“You’ve got top boots, it appears.”N. BATZARIA (“Old Nae”), a great storyteller, had an adventurous life: a participant in the Young Turks’ revolution, he was – as a senator and minister of the Ottoman Empire – a signatory of the London Peace Treaty (1913) that brought the First Balkan War to an end. He became a senator in Romania, and died in a communist camp.
Marin IORDA (aka Iordache), a film and stage director and set designer, actor, screenwriter, and cartoonist, was cofounder, with Batzaria, of the Children’s Morning magazine in 1924. Together they created the zany, sometimes grotesque, Haplea (Gobbles) family (1928), made into the first Romanian animated film in the same year – click here to see fragment (click on “Haplea”).
Galileo’s Leaning Tower Experiment
When the great scientist and professor Galileo meets a bright farm boy, Massimo, the teacher becomes the student. On an ordinary day, Galileo encounters Massimo dropping food from a bridge to his uncle passing below in his boat. This simple action makes Galileo rethink Aristotle’s teachings. Galileo takes an interest in Massimo’s cleverness, and together, in a series of experiments, the two investigate the science of motion.
Galileo’s Leaning Tower of Pisa experiment
The legend of the leaning tower
Gobble, gobble, munch, munch
Gobble, gobble, munch, munch.
Look out, stomach, here comes lunch!
by Green Eggs and Ham
Happy B-Day Sam-I-Am, 50 Years of ‘Green Eggs and Ham’
Going to Market
A shopkeeper has lent 50 dinars to a sheik, and another 50 to a merchant. The sheik paid the debt in four installments of 20, 15, 10, and 5 dinars:
| Installment | Paid | Still Owed | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 20 | 30 | |
| 2 | 15 | 15 | |
| 3 | 10 | 5 | |
| 4 | 5 | 0 | |
| Total | 50 | Total | 50 |
The merchant paid the debt in four installments of 20, 18, 3, and 9 dinars:
| Installment | Paid | Still Owed | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 20 | 30 | |
| 2 | 18 | 12 | |
| 3 | 3 | 9 | |
| 4 | 9 | 0 | |
| Total | 50 | Total | 51 |
How to explain the difference of 1 dinar?
Mathematical excerpts from The Man Who Counted by Malba Tahan
Groundhog Day
by Sharon Siegelman
The groundhog is an animal
Whose home is underground.
On Groundhog Day he goes outside
To have a look around.
He does not have a calendar.
He does not have a clue.
But on February second
He just knows what to do.
A groundhog must be ready
To do his job each year.
Please tell me, Mr. Groundhog,
Do you think spring is near?
