CDR: Re: The Ant and the Grasshopper

[Neil Johnson]

> CLASSIC VERSION
>
> The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his
> house and laying up supplies for the winter.  The grasshopper thinks he's
> a fool and laughs, dances, and plays the summer away.  Come winter, the
> ant is warm and well fed.  The grasshopper has no food or shelter so he
> dies out in the cold.
>
> MODERN VERSION
>
> The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his
> house and laying up supplies for the winter.  The grasshopper thinks he's
> a fool and laughs, dances, and plays the summer away.  Come winter, the
> shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the
> ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and
> starving.
>

Satire imitates life:

I was watching "The Big Comfy Couch" (a children's show on PBS) with my
three year old. Their revision of the fable was to have the ants invite the
grasshopper in to their home for the winter because they realized they had
no music to sing or dances to do.

The moral seemed to be 'We need  the fools who laugh, sing, dance, and play
the summer away, because they are "artists"'.

It pissed me off.

(I think the Ants singing "Nayah-Nayah-Nayah" while dancing on the
Grasshopper's grave would have been sufficient).

Neil M. Johnson
njohnson at interl.net
http://www.interl.net/~njohnson
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