On the 20th day of December

[Conrad Hoffsommer]

Richard Brekne wrote:
> Grin...  we do have the loose pins more or less under day sixteen.  And 
> the original day one was  "A cracked plate and several broken keys".  
> The plate and the block might be tough beyond day 1 because...welll 
> there is only one to a piano.

You're forgetting the Chickering with up to FOUR pinblocks, my friend. 
Worked on the one here, just last week.

   Course we could have droped the numbers
> for each day and just done the song that way... but perhaps next year 
> !!  The only other thing I can think og is to turn day 25 (which I'm 
> figuring on being the last day) into the same kind of line as day 1.  
> That might work...   "With a cracked plated and a pinblock split 
> apart".... or something like that :)
> 
> Cheers
> RicB
> 
> 
>        There's got to be a way to cram in a delaminated pinblock,
>        sseveral loose pins, and a cracked/broken plate...
> 
> 
>         >Subject: On the 20th day of December
>     >
>     >T minus 5 and counting --
>     >
>     >On the 20th day of December a piano came to me
>     >
>     >   With twenty beckets a-buckling
>     >   Nineteen shanks a-squiggling
>     >   Eighteen keys a-knocking
>     >   Seventeen barren backchecks
>     >   Sixteen pins a-pommelled
>     >   Fifteen butts a-bounding
>     >   Fourteen wobbly whippens
>     >   Thirteen coins a-clinking,
>     >   Twelve tubby bass strings,
>     >   Eleven  jacks a-jumping,
>     >   Ten grungy grommets,
>     >   Nine brittle bridles,
>     >   Eight damaged dampers,
>     >   Seven fractured flanges,
>     >   Six errant elbows,
>     >   Five broken strings !
>     >   Four coats of paint,
>     >   Three warped posts,
>     >   Two pedals bent,
>     >   From a Parson who wants it fixed free !
>     >
>     >Cheers
>     >RicB
> 


All bridge pins a-buzzing...
Myriad silk loops snapping...
False beats by the billions...


The main problem now is the number of syllables in the numbers, 
exacerbated by the desire to add "a-" to faults and foibles and wanting 
to retain some semblance of rhyme and rhythm to the original.




-- 
Conrad Hoffsommer - Keyboard Technician
Luther College, 700 College Dr., Decorah, Iowa 52101-1045
1-(563)-387-1204 // Fax 1-(563)-387-1076