An Elephant Sat on Rhiannon...


Rhiannon and I went to the zoo today to give mom some quiet time to prepare for Monday's classes. As it was about 106F, we took a lot of breaks, sitting in the shade, drinking cold beverages.

On one such stop, we started singing the infectious song-that-never-ends by kids' music pariah, Raffi: "Willoughby Wallaby".

Now, when we first started, this wasn't too cute. I guess it was average cute. But not really cute. Rhiannon was singing about her friends:

Willoughby Wallaby wee.
An elephant sat on me.
Willoughby Wallaby woo.
And elephant sat on you.
Willoughby Wallaby wynn.
An elephant sat on Kwynn.
Willoughby Wallaby wariel.
An elephant sat on Ariel.

and so on...

BUT...

Rhiannon starts to mix it up:

Willoughby wallaby wayni.
An elephant sat on Jayni.
Willoughby wallaby wammy.
An elephant sat on grammy.

and then...

Willoughby wallaby woop.
An elephant sat on poop.
Willoughby wallaby wenosha.
An elephant sat on Kenosha.
Willoughby wallaby weets.
An elephant sat on the Petes.
Willoughby wallaby wessica wimpson
An elephant sat on Jessica Simpson.

The song keeps going and going and going and going, and the longer this elephant-induced apocalypse lasts, the funnier it gets, simply because it never ends. In my mind, I pretend we are controlling an elephant with voodoo-like ease, commanding it to sit wherever and on whomever we choose, and soon all of Rhiannon's friends are crushed, her teachers, classmates, towns, the entire state of Arizona, family, distant relatives, presidential candidates, evil academics, the Beatles. Oh, the humanity.

And then, the song is over as quickly as it was begun. We are off to see the meerkats, but first, the wallabys.

Rhiannon. Willoughby wallaby w00t. Rhiannon sure is cute.

Andrew (Papa)