2/24/06

Guts & Gory

"Finally a Democrat with
Guts,"
reads the pea-soup green Chris Bell for Governor pamphlet on the kitchen table. Every time I see it, I turn into a sixth grader. Not a sixth grader of today, with a vocabulary that would make a sailor blush, though. A sixth grader of 1966, for whom "guts" was a bad word*. That was why it was such a bold, subversive, summer camp thing to sing about "greasy, grimy gopher guts." That's why I can never forget the horrible moment when I accidentally slammed my friend's finger in the door. As she looked at the big cut across the joint of her finger, she pronounced the immortal words, "I can see my guts!"

Those probably aren't the same guts that Democrat Chris Bell has, but I appreciate his courage bringing ethic charges against Tom "The Hammer" DeLay, and now running against greasy, grimy Governor Good-Hair Perry. Bell's "Don't Mess With Ethics" reform plan has some fitting words for this flashback--Slam shut the lobbyists' revolving door! With each day's news we see more of the sickening innards of the Bush/DeLay/Perry Texas Gang of politicos, and realize just how long the disruptive effects of their power will linger.

There are as many versions of the camp song as there are kids' summer camps. Ours went:

I've got lots of greasy, grimy gopher guts
mutilated monkey meat
itty bitty birdie feet
one whole pound of all-purpose porpoise pus
floating in pink lemonade.


*In 1966, in Lincoln, Nebraska, it was still a poor choice to voice the observation that "somebody tooted." Now kids grow up with Walter the Farting Dog picture books for preschoolers. As the Publishers Weekly review quoted on Amazon notes, "Yes, this lowbrow endeavor could be a crowd-pleaser but, like its topic, its disruptive effects will tend to linger. Ages 4-8"

No comments:

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...