Why don't you write a play
Why don't you cut your hair?
Do you trim your toe-nails round
Or do you trim them square?
Tell it to the papers,
Tell it every day.
But, en passant, may I ask
Why don't you write a play?
What's your last religion?
Have you got a creed?
Do you dress in Jaeger-wool
Sackcloth, silk or tweed?
Name the books that helped you
On the path you've trod.
Do you use a little g
When you write of God?
Do you hope to enter
Fame's immortal dome?
Do you put the washing out
Or have it done at home?
Have you any morals?
Does your genius burn?
Was you wife a what's its name?
How much did she earn?
Had your friend a secret
Sorrow, shame or vice
Have you promised not to tell
What's your lowest price?
All the housemaid fancied
All the butler guessed
Tell it to the public press
And we will do the rest.
Why don't you write a play?
[Rudyard Kipling, 1899]
Posted by gerardvanderleun at September 22, 2014 10:25 AM
Some laundry, though dirtier than others, is not seen by the media.
Posted by: Bob Agard at February 26, 2013 12:17 PMSome laundry, though dirtier than others, is not seen by the media.
Posted by: Bob Agard at February 26, 2013 12:44 PMKipling was a prophet.
Posted by: Fat Man at September 22, 2014 2:17 PMNice metaphor: News and the Mainstream Media as entertainment, and none too heavy at that. I have in past referred to the news as a puppet show.
Kipling was prescient.
Posted by: chasmatic at September 23, 2014 12:03 AMPlayed it again. It sounds like Huey Lewis and the News without the horns.
Posted by: chasmatic at September 23, 2014 1:19 AMWorked out for David Mamet, until he went all "Hey, wait a minute..." and stuff.
Some folks still SWEAR that "Oleanna" is all about the organized oppression of women in college.
Posted by: CaptDMO at September 24, 2014 11:12 AM
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