Cul de Sac by Richard Thompson for March 27, 2011

Lordy, LOL!

Where can I get a copy of “The Very Cranky Vole”?

lovely

I used to fight tooth and nail to stay up past bedtime, convinced that once we went to bed, that’s when Mom and Dad really started the party. Now I have kids of my own and know that the only things parents do when their kids are asleep are things like dishes, laundry, homework, clutter cleanup, et cetera. And all they really want to do is go to bed.

The routine would have to start around supper time, Alice, because you’re not staying up later.

Alice reminds me of one of my children…

what’s a pratfall?

It’s just like a waterfall, only different

Now I’ll be wondering all day what made the Vole so cranky.

A pratfall is a fall on one’s rear end.

You’ll have nightmares anyway, Alice. That’s how your bedtime routine ALWAYS ends!

prfesser, Muzition is at least as correct as you are, and possibly moreso. A quick look into the etymology isn’t definitive, but “prat” as slang for “buttock” goes back at least to the 1500’s. Its meaning as “a worthless or pompous person” came later, but “pratfall” itself doesn’t appear until the 1930’s. One source even suggests the Old English “prætt” as a source, meaning a trick or a prank.

Whether a “pratfall” is “a fall on one’s prat” “a fall by a prat”, or “a fall as a prat” is kind of moot, since its connotation now as “a comically humbling accident” works for any of the above.

On a related note, a “slapstick” was originally a stage prop designed to create a loud WHACK! when someone was struck with it, but nowadays “slapstick comedy” rarely if ever uses actual slapsticks.

All I ever got was a “don’t let the bedbugs bite” and a pinch.

It was enough. :)

Give it up Alice. You got more time than most kids get!

Send in the clowns…. There ought to be clowns… Don’t bother, they’re here….

Yes! Bring on the vole!

How very Wagnerian of your Gesamtkunstwerk plans, Alice!

PRATFALL