Photo by Mike Castro Demaria on Unsplash
Kickass, the doorstop dog, sympathizes with the keeper as he grapples with a brain-worm that has turned into a brain-snake in the form of the 1948 hit song “On a Slow Boat to China.”
Brain-worms are more of a problem in the keeper’s ancient age group as old brains tend to freeze up, mix up, act up and give up, so there is much less ability to deal with brain-worms, particularly one that apparently grows, as in the keeper being besieged with more and more of the lyrics from “On a Slow Boat to China.”
This means, of course, that for lo these many years, those lyrics have occupied some of the keeper’s brain space that might have been put to better use in any number of beneficial ways. Maybe he could have used them to trade his newspaper writing career for something more respectable and enriching, sheep herding perhaps.
“On a Slow Boat to China” was a hit for many artists including Rosemary Clooney and Bing Crosby. The song writer Frank Loesser adapted the phrase “I’d love to get you on a slow boat to China” from the gambling world where it was used to describe a gambler who was a frequent loser..
Phyllis was only eight years old when the song was released and in an effort to quell his out-of-control brain worm, the keeper plans to sing it to her, risking, even hoping that she may conclude that life with the keeper is the original “Slow Boat to China.”
Photo by Bill Stokes