E-N-C-Y-C-L-O-P-E-D-I-A

I remember my mother singing me Jiminy Cricket's "Encyclopedia" song when I was a kid often enough that I learned it. I can only assume this was because I asked a lot of questions and she was encouraging me to look up the answers so I would really learn something. But the most useful thing I got from the song was learning how to spell "encyclopedia." I am a very poor speller but that was one word I always knew how to spell. Not only that, but it was a very big and difficult word, so the fact that I could spell it impressed my peers for many years. It was one of two childhood parlor tricks, the other being able to say the alphabet backwords, which still sometimes impresses people.

I should have picked up on how the use of rhythm helped me remember how to spell things. My mother used a little cheer to teach me and Amanda how to spell "Mazzaferro," and I never forgot how to spell that either. EM AY ZEE-ZEE-AY EF EE ARR-ARR-OH Maaaaaaaazzaferro! (think: short, short, fast, fast, fast, short, short, fast, fast, fast, long) In later life I discovered that the letters in my yahoo address, sbmazzaferro, could be sung to the tune of "Old MacDonald" and heard the song in my head ever after when I signed in.

But I digress. The Wikipedia song that accompanies "The Ballad of John's LLM" is meant to be in the style of Jiminy Cricket's "Encyclopedia" song. I've tried to change it up a bit, but I think the resemblance is still there.





Perhaps you have guessed that not much has happened in the Nelson household this weekend. My bike stopped working yesterday when the chain jumped the track and could not be coaxed back on to any of the gears because the bolt holding the rack on was in the way. This morning I undid the bolt and revered its direction, so hopefully it will not be able to trap the chain again. For now, the bike is again roadworthy.