I hear lots of talk here about "the family."
Dear Dead Days:
Welcome to the family.
No Me No You:
You disavow the family.
So what's the deal there? And the way I see it, both songs involve two people: one who controls, and one who is controlled. Dear Dead Days seems to be about someone who has made the narrator into his/her "property." No Me No You sounds to me like the narrator from the original breaking away from whoever "owned" him or her, saying there's "No Me No You" any longer: just me.
Whatcha think?
IIRC, NMNY is actually about the fascinating plight of the migratory barnacle goose. The natural history of barnacle goose was long surrounded with a legend claiming that they were born of driftwood:
Nature produces [Bernacae] against Nature in the most extraordinary way. They are like marsh geese but somewhat smaller. They are produced from fir timber tossed along the sea, and are at first like gum. Afterwards they hang down by their beaks as if they were a seaweed attached to the timber, and are surrounded by shells in order to grow more freely. Having thus in process of time been clothed with a strong coat of feathers, they either fall into the water or fly freely away into the air. They derived their food and growth from the sap of the wood or from the sea, by a secret and most wonderful process of alimentation. I have frequently seen, with my own eyes, more than a thousand of these small bodies of birds, hanging down on the sea-shore from one piece of timber, enclosed in their shells, and already formed. They do not breed and lay eggs like other birds, nor do they ever hatch any eggs, nor do they seem to build nests in any corner of the earth.
The legend was widely repeated in, for example, Vincent of Beauvais's great encyclopedia. However, it was also criticized by other medieval authors, including Albertus Magnus.
This belief may be related to the fact that these geese were never seen in summer, when they were supposedly developing underwater (they were actually breeding in remote Arctic regions).
Based on this legend—indeed, the legend may have been invented for this purpose—some Irish clerics considered barnacle goose flesh to be acceptable fast day food, a practice that was criticized by a contemporary English author:
...Bishops and religious men (viri religiosi) in some parts of Ireland do not scruple to dine off these birds at the time of fasting, because they are not flesh nor born of flesh.... But in so doing they are led into sin. For if anyone were to eat of the leg of our first parent (Adam) although he was not born of flesh, that person could not be adjudged innocent of eating meat.
At the Fourth Council of the Lateran (1215), Pope Innocent III explicitly prohibited the eating of these geese during Lent, arguing that despite their unusual reproduction, they lived and fed like ducks and so were of the same nature as other birds.
The question of the nature of barnacle geese also came up as a matter of Jewish dietary law in the Halakha, and Rabbi Tam (1100-71) determined that they were kosher (even if born of trees) and should be slaughtered following the normal prescriptions for birds.
that wins all.
/bow
*smacks forehead*
Gah, of course! I feel like such a fool. Thank you for clearing things up for me, and sorry to take your time.
Quote from: "rogerg"that wins all.
/bow
+1! :D
Of course, you think he's making this up...
QuoteSir John Mandeville [14th century CE] (Travels, chapter 29): I told them of as great a marvel to them, that is amongst us, and that was of the Bernakes. For I told them that in our country were trees that bear a fruit that become birds flying, and those that fell in the water live, and they that fall on the earth die anon, and they be right good to man's meat. And hereof had they as great marvel, that some of them trowed it were an impossible thing to be.
http://bestiary.ca/beasts/beast1195.htm (http://bestiary.ca/beasts/beast1195.htm)
Quote from: "gr8gonzo"However, it was also criticized by other medieval authors, including Albertus Magnus.
Oh give me a break! Albertus fricken Magnus has been acting Mr smartass on thousands of forums since the middle ages. Think it's a coincidence he's been banned from more then 2500 forums?! :roll:
:? huh, I thought someone made the narrator into his/her "cup of tea"