{"id":16426,"date":"2015-04-04T11:37:15","date_gmt":"2015-04-04T18:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=16426"},"modified":"2015-10-20T13:10:06","modified_gmt":"2015-10-20T20:10:06","slug":"saturday-bag-o-bawdy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=16426","title":{"rendered":"Saturday Bag o’ Bawdy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ScreenI started learning and collecting bawdy songs when I was in the Air Force; every fighter squadron I flew with had an\u00a0unofficial songbook (that’s one of my old squadron songbooks on the left). Midway through my USAF career\u00a0I started running with the Hash House Harriers<\/a>, who, like rugby players and fighter pilots, share a love of bawdy song.<\/p>\n

Eventually I put together my own songbook.\u00a0Hash\u00a0chapters all over the world use it; I get\u00a0requests for copies every week. There’s a copy in the American Folklife Archive of the US Library of Congress.\u00a0I’ve shared my versions of classic and little-known bawdy songs with scholars and folk singers.<\/p>\n

Hey, it’s a hobby, but an increasingly disreputable one. Today, witness the witch hunts on Twitter, people are quick to take offense and pile on. There are a hell of a lot of songs in my collection\u00a0that belittle women and depict them as depraved sexual wantons. Many\u00a0are racist\u00a0(though I must say not to the level of those frat guys\u00a0on the bus\u00a0with their n-word chant). The truly gross ones are\u00a0traditional military songs about war: have you heard of a little ditty called Napalm Sticks to Kids? Jesus.<\/p>\n

A group of sexual assault victims\u00a0is\u00a0suing the Department of Defense<\/a>. They want to\u00a0force\u00a0the military\u00a0to bring in outside investigators and\u00a0stop allowing commanders to whitewash sexual\u00a0assaults in-house, a topic\u00a0I’ve addressed here before<\/a>. This time they’ve introduced an\u00a0“unofficial” USAF squadron songbook into evidence, claiming it exposes\u00a0a “continuing culture in the Air Force and military that glorifies sexual violence.” The songbook\u00a0bears\u00a0the logo of the 77th Fighter Squadron, based at Shaw AFB in South Carolina. It probably looks a lot like my old 43rd Fighter Squadron songbook, and it’s\u00a0very likely I\u00a0know all the songs in it.<\/p>\n

There are\u00a0literally hundreds of organizations — hash chapters, military units, fraternities, athletic clubs, fire and police departments, even corporations —\u00a0whose members Xerox and pass around unofficial songbooks. Unofficial they may be, but all the ones I’ve seen have organizational, corporate, or unit labels on their covers. In the wrong context — a\u00a0courtroom, say, or on the front page of a newspaper — they look mighty damned official.<\/p>\n

I no longer sing the\u00a0really offensive songs in my collection\u00a0(in fact I’ve deleted a few of the worst ones),\u00a0but the songbook’s out there, with my name on it, and there’s no taking it back. Good thing I’m not looking for a job, I guess.<\/p>\n

\n

From all I hear, nuclear proliferation experts and other grownups\u00a0are very happy with the framework agreement we worked out with Iran. That’s more than I dared hope for;\u00a0the talks could easily have broken down, especially with\u00a0conservatives in this country and elsewhere\u00a0working overtime to sabotage them.<\/p>\n

We know what Netanyahu and Republicans in the US Congress think of these negotiations, but so far only one of my Jewish friends has weighed in: she’s opposed to any talks or agreements with Iran, period. This doesn’t surprise me, and I expect I’ll hear similar opinions from other friends soon. But I have to ask, what’s the alternative?<\/p>\n

What we’re working toward with Iran sounds a lot like the policy of containment we adopted toward the Soviet Union after WWII. I seem to recall we negotiated several nuclear weapon and ICBM treaties with the USSR during those years.\u00a0Our policy was an effective one.<\/p>\n

I think I’ll try to wait out the overheated rhetoric coming from the bomb-bomb-bomb-Iran crowd.<\/p>\n

\n

April’s stacking up to be an active month. One, I’ve been slacking on gym visits and bicycle rides; that’s over and I’m working out again. Two, there’s a hash next Sunday. Three, our friend Angie is coming to visit and she and I will be the hares for a bicycle hash the Sunday after that, which means at least one trail-scouting outing beforehand. Four, I’m going on a four-day motorcycle ride with my friend Ed through Arizona, Utah, and Nevada at the end of the month.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0bicycle hash\u00a0is\u00a0on the same day (Sunday, April 19) as Tucson’s annual Cyclovia, a combination bicycle ride and street fair. I emailed Angie to suggest we\u00a0plan our trail so that it intersects with the\u00a0Cyclovia route, preferably the street fair part where there’ll be a\u00a0bicycle swap meet\u00a0and food trucks. Should be fun.<\/p>\n

Naturally, though, for the next three weeks Tucson is repaving a major east\/west street that runs right through the middle of our planned route. Crossing points will vary from day to day: crossings that are open the day we scout trail\u00a0may not be the same ones that are open two Sundays from now, when\u00a0a pack of riders will be chasing our asses. Drama!<\/p>\n

As for today, I just finished the weekly outdoor chores: dog poop patrol, adding water to the pool, adjusting\u00a0spa chemicals, refilling bird feeders. Speaking of birds, the mama hummingbirds are on their ceiling hook nests again, sitting on the next generation’s\u00a0eggs.<\/p>\n

Later this morning, Donna wants me to hold the cat while she shaves its butt. Chewie’s in her 19th year and letting herself go, the poor old thing.\u00a0Her coat’s a rat’s nest, and apparently she soiled herself last night and drug her bottom on the floor to scrape it off. I have a small beard trimmer I no longer use; after this I might just throw it away.<\/p>\n

The world needs a bawdy song about shaving a cat’s ass. Maybe I’ll write one!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I started learning and collecting bawdy songs when I was in the Air Force; every fighter squadron I flew with had an\u00a0unofficial songbook (that’s one of my old squadron songbooks on the left). Midway through my USAF career\u00a0I started running with the Hash House Harriers, who, like rugby players and fighter pilots, share a love […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,10,555,14,2],"tags":[1839,190,1840],"class_list":["post-16426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bicycling","category-current-events","category-local-color","category-military","category-personal","tag-bawdy-songs","tag-hash-house-harriers-2","tag-iran"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16426"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17657,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16426\/revisions\/17657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}