O Wooden Tit, be Luvverly!

[steepholm]

Such was the cry of Pygmalion himself, n'est-ce pas? Okay, enough with the mondegreens already, but that tune's been going round my head all day like that crawling woman in "The Yellow Wallpaper", and this is my attempt at purgation.

In other news, I've taken pity on Solomon (the guinea pig), and brought him indoors for the night, hutch and all, as it's already below freezing and the stars are all shiny and bright. Last year he could have relied on Bonne Idee for body heat, but this year he has nothing but a bottle of hay, and it's just not the same - not the same at all.

Comments

[a-d-medievalist.livejournal.com]

There are never enough mondegreens! Hay comes in bottles?

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

No, no do not want! La la la--

play "Riu riu" loud. That'll do it.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Well, admittedly that was a bit of an affectation, but bottle=bundle in some contexts. "A needle in a bottle of hay" was the common expression, before haystacks came into use. I first came across it in John Skelton's "Speke, Parot":

Our Greeks their Greek so well have applied
That they cannot say in Greek, riding by the way,
"Ho Hostler, fetch my horse a bottle of hay!"

And I'm a long-time Skelton liker...

[a-d-medievalist.livejournal.com]

Interesting. Really in some contexts, or is it a Skeltonism? Either way, it reminds me of the long-standing joke of a traveler/cowboy riding up to the inn/saloon and asking the bartender for a drink, "and one for my horse"

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

No, honest! It's not just Skelton and me. Bottles of hay were once ten a penny. Or forty a groat.