h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.h2g2.com/A367418

I'd appreciate it if you guys could take a look at this article. It's a list of as many counting rhymes as I could remember (with a little help from a few others). If you have any of your own to add, please add a forum to this article!

I thought this article would have already been approved, or at least submitted.

Wasn't it one of those mass entries that the entire community was invited to contribute to?

Like Teenage Issues, http://www.h2g2.com/A364646, or Favorite Cars, http://www.h2g2.com/A385733?

It's a fairly new entry - I did ask for help, but I didn't submit it before the new system was introduced. Hopefully it'll get approved shortly...

a very handy & absolute neccessary entry.
But I miss a general introduction to the subject & maybe a description to each rhyme (if neccessary; e.g. how are the children's games played?)
also, the rhymes could be divided by s.

I just had to think of the Monty Python scetch in the trenches, where they use counting rhymes to decide who is going to be left alone. do you know that one?

I like the idea of chronicling the counting rhymes - but I think they need a little more background information. About ten or twelve years ago, I ran across a book called 'The Real Mother Goose.' It had some really interesting stories about the origins of some of these rhymes.

For instance:
• 'Mary, Mary Quite Contrary' is supposedly about one of the queens being a lesbian... 'Silver bells & cockleshells & pretty maids all in a row...'
• 'Little Jack Horner' was actually about a man who was given a pastry to take to another (city? castle? province?) and on the way, decided to take a peek. Inside the pie was a deed to some property. (Put in his thumb, and pulled out a plum...)
• 'Ring Around The Rosy' was about the Black Plague. (Ashes, ashes, we all fall down!)

Unfortunately the publisher has stopped the printing of this book, and I wasn't able to order one from the bookstore. So I'll have to look in the used bookstores and hope I find it!

In your situation, there's got to be some origin stories for these rhymes - whether it's Hans Christian Anderson, Mother Goose, or ancient Germany... If nothing else, I think you might want to add more rhymes to the collection. Good luck!

- Lentilla

There's some bits at http://www.h2g2.com/A288966 on nursery rhymes that might interest you. Perhaps the article about counting rhymes should be incorporated into it?

Yes - it does feel a little odd without some information about the rhymes: less like an entry, and more like a shopping list, somehow...

Hmm....

Yet again, I find myself agreeing with Lucinda. One of the big points for 'edited guide entries' is that they consist of original work -- this entry is just a list of rhymes and poems made up by others over the ages.

If the author really wants to turn this into an entry ready for the Edited Guide, I think it would need some bits on:

1) the history of counting rhymes
2) the different ways they are used (i.e., for jumping rope, for marching, etc.)


Mikey

Peter and Iona Opie wrote the definitive (anthropoligical) works on Children's nursury rhymes in the 1960s, and very readable they were too. The only one mentioned on Amazon is 'The Lore and Language of School Children' and it seems to be an american edition. There are collections of nursury rhymes there too.

My books are all in boxes under my bed, in my wardrobe, in my ex's garage, (you get the idea), or I would track them down.

Their son runs a museum of packaging and other ephemera in Gloucester Docks

Not very helpful, I am afraid.

agcB

Hi Justin - what do you think of Mikey and my suggestions? Do you think we're onto something, or are we talking out of our knickers here?

All good suggestions. Not sure why I didn't spot them before...
But perhaps this thread should be moved to Writing Workshop - I can't see myself finding enough time to do the necessary research any time in the near future.

J

Hi J, are you still overworked?

I'm afraid so, Bossel. In fact, this conversation nearly escaped my attention! If you (or anyone else!) wants to take it on, you're more than welcome.

J

I'm afraid I've got a University project to finish

I don't know of anybody having done it before, but if you don't see a chance then how about posting it to the Flea Market so everybody knows it's a vacant entry?

Would it be better to move this thread to FM?

LOL! Guess what FM stands for!

I'll pick this one up and play with it, if nobody else wants it. Send it to the Flea Market, and I'll do some research and see if I can fill it out adequately. If I can, I'll take it on.

(There's all sorts of esoteric information that I'd love to put in here!)