First timer? In this formerly once-a-day blog (and now pretty much a once-every-four-or-five days blog), I have my computer select a random latitude and longitude that puts me somewhere in the continental United States (the lower 48). I call this “landing.” I keep track of the watersheds I land in, as well as the town I land near. I do some internet research to hopefully find something of interest about my landing location. To find out more about A Landing A Day (like who “Dan” is) please see “About Landing” above. To check out some recent changes in how I do things, check out “About Landing (Revisited).”
Landing number 2280; A Landing A Day blog post number 710.
Dan: Just like my last post (Idalia and Joes, Colorado) – AYKM? Iowa makes eight, count ‘em, eight OSers in a row. My Score continues to climb, from 760 to 765. This just ain’t right.
Check out “About Landing (Revisited” to understand the above. (Or not, your choice . . . )
Here’s my regional landing map:
And my local landing map:
Hmmm. Looks like a lot of towns were ignored when I settled on only Woolstock. More about that later.
My streams-only map shows that I landed in the watershed of the White Fox Creek, which makes its way to the Boone River (first hit ever!). The Boone heads south, and discharges to the Des Moines River (11th hit):
Zooming back a little, and we see that the Des Moines (after briefly forming the boundary between Iowa and Missouri), discharges to the MM (892nd hit).
So, it’s time for my spaceflight in to central Iowa. Click Here, enjoy the trip, and hit your back button.
I checked out GE Street View, and here’s the look I could get at my landing spot:
And here’s what the orange dude sees:
I went a few miles to the southwest to get this Street View shot of the White Fox Creek:
Just like my last landing in east-central Colorado, I’ve managed to find a pretty-much hookless area. Look at all the towns on my local landing map! Of course, I checked them all out, and all I could come up with was in the Wiki entry for Woolstock, where it said that a notable native son was George Reeves.
From Wiki, about George:
George Reeves (1914 – 1959) was an American actor. He is best known for his role as Superman in the 1950s television program Adventures of Superman.
His death at age 45 from a gunshot remains a polarizing topic; the official finding was suicide, but some believe that he was murdered or the victim of an accidental shooting.
Oh my. The Superman TV show started in 1952. I was two, and my family didn’t own a TV. We got our first TV in 1955, and I’m sure I started watching Superman soon thereafter (until the show ended in 1958). I suspect I watched many reruns back in the day as well.
Here’s the intro, which is totally familiar to me:
Here’s a screen shot of a small portion of Google Images for George Reeves:
And a GE Panoramio shot of his birthplace in Woolstock (by jzsni):
Just thinking about Superman reminded me of one of my all-time favorite songs, “Superman’s Song,” by Crash Test Dummies. Here’s the music, with the words below. Please give this your attention!
Tarzan wasn’t a ladies’ man
He’d just come along and scoop ’em up under his arm, like that
Quick as a cat
In the jungle
Clark Kent, now there was a real gent
He would not be caught sittin’ around in no junglescape,
Dumb as an ape,
Doing nothing
Chorus:
Superman never made any money
For saving the world from Solomon Grundy
And sometimes I despair the world will never see
Another man like him
Hey Bob, Supe had a straight job
Even though he could have smashed through any bank
In the United States, he had the strength, but he would not
Folks said his family were all dead
Their planet crumbled but Superman, he forced himself
To carry on,
Forget Krypton,
And keep going
Chorus
Tarzan was king of the jungle and Lord over all the apes
But he could hardly string together four words: “I Tarzan, You Jane.”
Sometimes when Supe was stopping crimes
I’ll bet that he was tempted to just quit and turn his back on man,
Join Tarzan in the forest
But he stayed in the city, and kept on changing clothes
In dirty old phonebooths till his work was through
And nothing to do but go on home
Chorus
If you loved the song like me, you’ll want to check out the official video. Here ‘tis, with an intro by the lead dude, Brad Roberts:
This got me to thinking about my all-time favorite song posted on ALAD: Tex Ritter’s Froggy Went a Courtin’, from my December 2013 Carthage, Texas post (Tex was a native son). This is a gratuitous opportunity to post it again. Here’s the pertinent excerpt from that post:
Then I stumbled on “Froggy Went a Courtin” and just loved it. I searched high and low for the lyrics, but couldn’t find the words that fit this You Tube version. So I did the best I could (the “fee fime oh” verses were all transcribed by me!)
Anyway, here it comes . . . (the following to be said with an exaggerated hillbilly accent) . . the pee-ess de ree-sis-tunce.
Froggy went a-courtin’ an-a he did ride, uh, huh
Froggy went a-courtin’ an-a he did ride, oh, hoh
Froggy went a-courtin’ an-a he did ride
Sword and a pistol by his side
Uh, huh . . . hmmm, hmmm, hmmm, hmmm
Well he went up-a to Miss-a Mousie’s door and a hoh and a hey and a hoh and a hey
Went up to Miss-a Mousie’s door, hoh
Went up-a to Miss-a Mousie’s door
She said get away you been here before,
Uh, huh . . . ohmmm, hmmm, hmmm, hmmm
Fee Fime Oh in the land of fear of Pharaoh
Come a rattrap, pennywinkle, tom o’doodle, rattle bugger rattrap
Penny won’t you kime be, oh.
Took a-Missa Mousie on his knee, uh, huh
Took a-Missa Mousie on his knee, oh
Took a-Missa Mousie on his knee
Well he said Miss Mousie, ‘Will you marry me’
Uh, huh, hmmm, hmmm, hmmm, hmmm.
Little piece of corn bread a-lyin’ on the shelf and a hoh and a hey and a hoh and a hey
Little piece of corn bread a-lyin’ on the shelf, uh, huh
Little piece of corn bread a-lyin’ on the shelf
If you want anymore you can sing it yourself
Uh, huh, hmmm, hmmm, hmmm, hmmm
Fee Fime Oh in the land of fear of Pharaoh
Come a rattrap, pennywinkle, tom o’doodle, rattle bugger rattrap
Penny won’t you kime be, oh.
Kimbo kymbo hey-ho gee-roh
Hey come a rattrap, pollywinkle lolly bugger rattrap
Penny won’t you kime be, oh.
I LOVE THIS! I’ve listened to it 20 times. I made sure I got the lyrics just right. . .
So this froggy song is an old folk song, and I mean old. Wiki (and other sources) have it as a Scottish folk song originating in 1548.
The song has been covered by countless artists, including Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Burl Ives, the Brothers Four, Elvis Presley, Bruce Springsteen, and Bob Dylan.
Tex Ritter’s rendition of this song will forever remain one of my all-time favorites . . .
I checked out many GE Panoramio shots near my landing, but I had to wander quite a ways off (about 25 miles to the northeast) to find one I deemed worthy of posting (by Jeromeburg):
That’ll do it . . .
KS
Greg
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