Mad Dogs & Englishmen
In tropical climes
There are certain times
Of day
When all the citizens retire
To take their clothes off and perspire.
It's one of those rules
That the greatest fools
Obey,
Because the sun is far too sultry
And one must avoid its ultry
Violet ray.
The natives grieve
When the white men leave
Their huts.
Because they're obviously,
Definitely
Nuts.
It turns out that there's more to Noel Coward's signature
tune than history, wit and impeccable pentameter.
According to a recent study in Taiwan.....
Daily temperature linked to bipolar admissions
Results from a Taiwanese study suggest that high daily
temperatures are associated with increased hospitalization
rates for mood symptoms among patients with bipolar disorder,
particularly women.
The researchers found that the risk for hospitalization began
to increase when the daily temperature rose above 24.0°C,
and continued to increase with higher daily temperatures.
read the rest at News Medical.
Mad Dogs & Englishmen
Go out in the midday sun.
The Japanese don't care to,
The Chinese wouldn't dare to,
Hindus and Argentines
Sleep firmly from twelve to one,
But Englishmen
Detest a
Siesta.
In the Philippines
They have lovely screens
To protect you from the glare.
In the Malay states
There are hats like plates
Which the Britishers won't wear.
At twelve noon
The natives swoon,
And no further work is done,
But mad dogs and Englishmen
Go out in the midday sun!
The humidex here this summer has been bumping 40 degrees regularly and we're nearing drought conditions, but for all
that I wasn't really all that surprised when I read this.
I've never really been a "summer" guy. This may be because
I do not come from tanning stock. After centuries of living
in cold, damp, dark hovels, my people lean towards the pale
and pasty and are best kept that way. Unlike vampires,
we can withstand some solar exposure but it's best
to keep it to a minimum lest one fry like a tomato.
As a result, beaches generally bore me after about 15 minutes.
I'm not very serious about beer, distrust most varieties
of wieners and have an aversion to mosquitos, deer flies
and other blood sucking things that borders on the phobic.
On a good day.
Long before I read this news, I knew that as the temperature
goes up, my IQ goes down to the point where I'd be hard-pressed
to beat a tossed salad on Jeopardy. I can't sleep in heat of the
night and can't wake up when morning calls. No matter how
much I hydrate, I seem to sweat buckets more and my appetite dwindles to the point where even ice cream
can seem like just too much work.
I sleep a lot. I read too much, and do absolutely nothing unless
it is neccessary to my survival as an organism. I look ahead to July and August like some sort of season in hell, praying for an early autumn that never comes.
Does that sound like depression?
Mad dogs and Englishmen
Go out in the midday sun.
The toughest Burmese bandit
Can never understand it.
In Rangoon
The heat of noon
Is just what the natives shun,
They put their Scotch
Or Rye down
And lie down.
In a jungle town
Where the sun beats down
To the rage of man and beast,
The English garb
Of the English sahib
Merely gets a bit more creased.
In Bangkok
At twelve'o'clock
They foam at the mouth and run,
But mad dogs and Englishmen
Go out in the midday sun.
I do not like your insinuation, sir!
Hear Noel Coward sing this pip of a tune with the Ray Noble Orchestra, recorded at 78 rpm in 1932 here at Archive.org
It's a free, legal download!
Grab the whole album and hear Ray and the boys work
out with Noel, Fred Astaire, Paul Robeson and other fine singers.
!
No comments:
Post a Comment