A little lighter poetry for you

One of my all time favorites, from A.A. Milne:

The Four Friends

Ernest was an elephant, a great big fellow,
Leonard was a lion with a six foot tail,
George was a goat, and his beard was yellow,
And James was a very small snail.

Leonard had a stall, and a great big strong one,
Earnest had a manger, and its walls were thick,
George found a pen, but I think it was the wrong one,
And James sat down on a brick

Earnest started trumpeting, and cracked his manger,
Leonard started roaring, and shivered his stall,
James gave a huffle of a snail in danger
And nobody heard him at all.

Earnest started trumpeting and raised such a rumpus,
Leonard started roaring and trying to kick,
James went on a journey with the goats new compass
And he reached the end of his brick.

Ernest was an elephant and very well intentioned,
Leonard was a lion with a brave new tail,
George was a goat, as I think I have mentioned,
but James was only a snail.





I love the rhyme of "intentioned" and "mentioned." I love the wrong pen. And I love the snail's huffle. This is right up there with Nash's Custard the Dragon in my book. Just plain silly, and fun, and from a time before ours, but still something children today can love. Case in point.

I was deferred from giving blood again yesterday - the second time in a row - because of a low hematocrit count. This in spite of the fact that I take iron daily and was nowhere in my cycle (thank you for asking) that would have caused a lower than usual count. The culprit, I think, is probably coffee. The Blood Bank gave me a second copy of a purple photocopied leaflet entitled, "Hematocrit Levels Handbook" which tells me that, "Coffee taken with meals can reduce iron absorption up to 39%." Since I take coffee with, before, and after breakfast, it doesn't matter how many nuts, beans, apricots or raisins I eat - it's not going to help. One more reason to cut back.

On the other hand, apparently iron or stainless steel cookware helps: "One study found that spaghetti has almost 30 times as much iron when cooked in an iron pot than in a glass one." Who cooks spaghetti in a glass pot these days? And who knows what hematocritic value Calphalon has?

I must be tired. I started out with a darling poem for children and ended up discussing the health benefits of cookware. Heck. Maybe I am anemic. If I ate red meat, I'd have a big old steak to see if that helps me string sentences together any better. As it is, I guess I'll go have a raisin. Or a cup of coffee. Yeah. That always enables me to focus.