Here

And then this Bear, Pooh Bear, Winnie-the-Pooh, F.O.P. (Friend of Piglet's), R.C. (Rabbit's Companion), P.D. (Pole Discoverer), E.C. and T.F. (Eeyore's Comforter and Tail-finder)--in fact, Pooh himself--said something so clever that Christopher Robin could only look at him with mouth open and eyes staring, wondering if this was really the Bear of Very Little Brain whom he had know and loved so long.

Monday, March 27, 2006

who eats pumpkins?

There is an ongoing (and surprisingly frequent) makhloqet between Oren and me regarding the appropriate beginning to the phrase "_______, _______, pumpkin eater."
Oren says "cheater, cheater, pumpkin eater."
I counter that it is Peter who eats pumpkins, and the poem goes:

Peter Peter pumpkin eater
had a wife and (but?) couldn't keep 'er
put her in a pumpkin shell
and there he kept her very well.

I know I am right. Or rather, that my version is older/"original" and his version is derived, since mine has a whole poem, and his is just an accusation, but anyway, today someone else said his version independently. Both Oren and the second offender are children of immigrants, whose innauguration into childhood rhymes is apparently lacking. However, the question remains. What is the word on the street? Has "Peter" evolved into "cheater" for the youth of today (due perhaps both to their lack of familiarity with poetry and to the objectionable content of this particular poem...)?

4 Comments:

At 8:43 PM, Blogger Abacaxi Mamao said...

I've never heard any version besides the "Peter" one. And I've heard "had a wife but couldn't keep 'er."

 
At 8:38 AM, Blogger miriam said...

thanks. also, perhaps ironically, peter in the poem is the cheated-upon, not the cheater ;)

 
At 11:38 AM, Blogger Zev said...

Oren is stupid. Cheater is most certainly a corrupt form of the original. Peter's relationship to pumpkins is obvious, not so a cheaters.

 
At 3:38 PM, Blogger jacob said...

With respect to Peter being the one cheated upon, I think we should laud Peter's wife as a feminist icon who refused to be the victim and showed that women can cheat just as much as men.
Somehow, I dont think that was the angle you were pointing out as ironic.

 

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