Pi and Sixpence

My topic for March?

What else?

Pie!

Sing a song of sixpence,

A pocket full of rye.

Four and twenty blackbirds

Baked in a pie.

When the pie was opened,

The birds began to sing.

Wasn’t that a dainty dish

To set before the king?

The king was in his counting house,

Counting out his money.

The queen was in the parlour,

Eating bread and honey.

The maid was in the garden,

Hanging out the clothes,

When down came a blackbird

And pecked off her nose.

They sent for the king’s doctor,

Who sewed it on again.

He sewed it on so neatly,

The seam was never seen.

or:

There was such a uproar,

That little Jenny wren

Flew down into the garden,

And put it back again.

Okay, I admit that this poem/song was a great favourite when I was a kid.

And I may or may not have recited/sung it ad infinitum et ad nauseum.

But now that I am a mite older, I’ve had the chance to really take a good, hard look!

Ahem…

Now, personally, I think it should start out with: ‘Sing a song FOR sixpence’ because, according to a popular author of the early fifteenth century, giving someone sixpence for a song was, if not common, at least accepted.

I know, I know. That would be an unacceptable number now—being both grossly inadequate and completely out of date.

But go with me on this…

A pocketful of rye could just be a simple unit of measure—although what one bake-er would be able to bake for his (or her) bake-ees with that much rye is questionable…

Now the next line was always the one that most fascinated me. The baking of four and twenty blackbirds into a pie.

I probably don’t have to tell you how I begged soulfully demanded asked politely for Mom to bake blackbirds into a pie for me.

Although I had no idea what a blackbird was.

Just a note: Now all I can think of is: feathers and beaks (birds and I have a history there…)

And bird poop.
Moving on…

But she never did.

So all pie singing had to be done by me. Ad infinitum, etc. See above…

And all eating by some nameless/faceless king who probably got yummy pie-makings all over that money he was counting.

Now the Queen had the right idea. Vis-à-vis eating, that is.

She was in the right place.

And eating the right things. (Although I always insisted that Mom add peanut butter to MY bread and honey.)

But the maid really got the short end of the stick.

There she was—the only person in the story (besides the bake-er) actually…you know…working…

And what does she get for her troubles?

A pecked-off nose.

Can anyone say OUCH?!

Oh, yeah…me.

OUCH!

Okay, okay, yes. Her nose was seamlessly restored by either the doctor or the less-likely Jenny wren, depending on which version you favour, but still.

I broke my nose bouncing on my bed and you have to know that anything to do with damage to that appendage… HURTS!

And bleeds.

A lot.

So I’m thinking we probably will be looking at washing to do over.

Poor maid.

See? Short end of the stick.

Oo! Oo! I just want to put this out there: Said maid was, in all likelihood, hanging said clothes on a Clothesline. I’m not too sure of their efficacy in relation to actual—as the name suggests—clothes.

We’ll have to explore that later…

But clothelines make great jungle gyms…

And there you have it.

A day in the life of the Blackbird King and Queen and their long-suffering maid.

With at least 24 blackbirds. Plus or minus one that obviously got away and started mutilating local personnel.

And maybe a bake-er.

Oh, and a doctor…or wren.

This was fun!

 

And just FYI: If you make me a pie with live birds in it, I’ll hand you a fork and napkin. Maybe even a plate.

But you’re eating it on your own.

Pi Night was a great success again this year.

My daughter and I--with a little help from two granddaughters and several more super-excited teenagers--made 106.5 pies this year.

We moved the event to our local church to see if more room would allow for more visiting time.

And it did!

A success on all counts!

I love Fly on the Wall days!

Today is that time, once a month, when my blogging sisters and I give you a glimpse into what has been happening in our homes, at our desks and in our heads.

I hope you enjoyed your visit here!

Go, now and see what my two sisters have been up to.

You know you'll like it!!!

Karen at Baking In A Tornado

Marcia at Menopausal Mother