No Ignoramus

No politics, religion or philosophy tonight.

For complicated reasons, I flashed on that daffy duo, Flanders & Swann, and their revue, At the Drop of a Hat.

My kid sister used to be able to (and no doubt still can) warble:

We don't ask much for wages, we only want fair shares
So cut down all the stages and stick up all the fares.
If tickets cost a pound a piece
Why should you make a fuss?
It's worth it just to ride inside
That 30-foot-long by 10-foot-wide
Inside that monarch of the road,
Observer of the Highway Code,
That big six-wheeler scarlet-painted London transport diesel-engined 97-horsepower, 97-horsepower omnibus.

I remember stuff like that, but unlike my brilliant sister, not completely, and rarely in order. The green monster is sitting on my shoulder.

And who can forget The Hippopotamus Song:

A bold hippopotamus was standing one day
On the banks of the cool Shalimar
He gazed at the bottom as he peacefully lay
By the light of the evening star
Away on the hilltop sat combing her hair
His fair hippopotami maid
The hippopotamus was no ignoramus
And sang her this sweet serenade

Chorus:
Mud, mud, glorious mud
Nothing quite like it for cooling the blood
So follow me follow, down to the hollow
And there let me wallow in glorious mud

The fair hippopotama he aimed to entice
From her seat on that hilltop above
As she hadn't got a ma to give her advice
Came tiptoeing down to her love
Like thunder the forest re-echoed the sound
Of the song that they sang when they met
His inamorata adjusted her garter
And lifted her voice in duet

Chorus

Now answer the comprehension questions here. Pencils ready!

After that, they sang it in Russian.

Enough for now. I'm having some Madeira with my gnu.