The Famous Tay Whale

THE FAMOUS TAY WHALE
by William McGonagall

'TWAS in the month of December, and in the year 1883,
That a monster whale came to Dundee,
Resolved for a few days to sport and play,
And devour the small fishes in the silvery Tay.

So the monster whale did sport and play
Among the innocent little fishes in the beautiful Tay,
Until he was seen by some men one day,
And they resolved to catch him without delay.

When it came to be known a whale was seen in the Tay,
Some men began to talk and to say,
We must try and catch this monster of a whale,
So come on, brave boys, and never say fail.

Then the people together in crowds did run,
Resolved to capture the whale and to have some fun!
So small boats were launched on the silvery Tay,
While the monster of the deep did sport and play.

Oh! it was a most fearful and beautiful sight,
To see it lashing the water with its tail all its might,
And making the water ascend like a shower of hail,
With one lash of its ugly and mighty tail.

Then the water did descend on the men in the boats,
Which wet their trousers and also their coats;
But it only made them the more determined to catch the whale,
But the whale shook at them his tail.

Then the whale began to puff and to blow,
While the men and the boats after him did go,
Armed well with harpoons for the fray,
Which they fired at him without dismay.

And they laughed and grinned just like wild baboons,
While they fired at him their sharp harpoons:
But when struck with,the harpoons he dived below,
Which filled his pursuers' hearts with woe.

Because they guessed they had lost a prize,
Which caused the tears to well up in their eyes;
And in that their anticipations were only right,
Because he sped on to Stonehaven with all his might:

And was first seen by the crew of a Gourdon fishing boat
Which they thought was a big coble upturned afloat;
But when they drew near they saw it was a whale,
So they resolved to tow it ashore without fail.

So they got a rope from each boat tied round his tail,
And landed their burden at Stonehaven without fail;
And when the people saw it their voices they did raise,
Declaring that the brave fishermen deserved great praise.

And my opinion is that God sent the whale in time of need,
No matter what other people may think or what is their creed;
I know fishermen in general are often very poor,
And God in His goodness sent it drive poverty from their door.

So Mr John Wood has bought it for two hundred and twenty-six pound,
And has brought it to Dundee all safe and all sound;
Which measures 40 feet in length from the snout to the tail,
So I advise the people far and near to see it without fail.

Then hurrah! for the mighty monster whale,
Which has got 17 feet 4 inches from tip to tip of a tail!
Which can be seen for a sixpence or a shilling,
That is to say, if the people all are willing.

Aussie Carnival of Sorry, Love, Whales and Other Stuff

Sorry!

Well at least you didn't have to wait until John Howard said Sorry for the all new Bonza Carnival of Australia to show up. Grovelling apologies as my life resembled a cake icing funnel with too many things trying to squeeze out the end. Now that I have got that out of the way, I can now focus on cooking, cleaning, fixing, building, tedious work stuff and the like practical self improvement measures.

This Carnival of Australia is brought to you at no cost by a fantastic range of high quality Aussie Bloggers. No warranty implied or otherwise is required and no compensation will be paid. Enjoy.

Enough of this self pity and on with the show.

With much of this week dwelling on Sorry and what it means, Megan has highlighted a topical post by Adam Valvasori (Values Manager), on the Body Shop Corporate Blog.

The Body Shop Australia are activists. Not only do they have a corporate blog that overtly flaunts their excellent corporate social responsibility, they also encourage peaceful social action to create change for a multi cultural, non racist and inclusive Australia. In this post by Adam Valvasori (Values Manager), the "Sorry" movement is aided by Adam's pointing toward a "handy" website: Australians for Native Title & Reconciliation (ANTaR) has a fantastic, creative way for you to commit to justice for Indigenous Australians, it's called the Sea Of Hands Online.

In the season of the valentine, Kathie has a beautiful rose to share. I understand that they are very expensive this year. We got lucky with our neighbour giving us ten established standard roses and bushes that he was taking out of our garden. I know that it is not a dozen, but not too bad.

Duncan Macleod on the other hand reckons underwear is the way to go.

Personally I would stay away from this. I am sure I would get the wrong thing. Better to stick to easy things like chocolate and diamond earrings.

Lightenings advice for new parents is to listen to your heart.

I learnt a very valuable lesson that day. To listen to what my instincts were saying. I’m not saying I’m a perfect mother. That I don’t make mistakes. But learning to “listen to my heart” has been the most valuable lesson that I’ve learnt in my decade as a mother.

I can really identify with this post, because we had some health issues which Hannah had when she was born. Luckily we sought the right advice and Hannah's illness was correctly diagnosed.Good advice.


Jen tells a fantastic tale about a day at Port Adelaide. My son Ryan did this trip with his school class last year and loved the light house. They also went on a trip on the Port River to look for Dolphins. Our kids plan to have mum and dad fork out on a monthly basis to support one of them.

Talking of large marine mammals, there has been plenty of coverage of the nasty harpoonists trying to supply the Japanese cravings for restaurant supplies research supplies.

Xavier Forrest writing in Celcius tackles the emotive issue of whaling.

Flametree has some thoughts on whaling too. You can make a support song using whale and nature sounds if you follow the link. Better be careful or the Yakusa will hunt you down.

Gavin R Putland tells the story of this photograph of two whales.

During a family gathering, my father wondered aloud whether one could see whales on Google Earth. He even nominated Hervey Bay as a good place to look...

Suzie Cheel asks an important question.

Do your words affect the results you get in your life? I know mine often do.

Life would be challenging with young kids without these words.

Megan offers an invitation to join the Teddy Tour to support abused kids a sistership project between All for Women and Imaginif.

Home is not always the safest place to be. Parents unable and unwilling to care for her, they shipped Jamila Rose off to her Uncle. After repeated rapes by him, Jamila took to the streets of Sydney where her misery and fear were further exploited. Now 36. Jamila Rose is getting her life back to where she wanted it to be.

Help women like Jamila have a voice.

D Robinson is not happy about the Commonwealth Government dragging their feet on implementing a paid maternity scheme.

Every time there is a change of government, we see the paid maternity leave issue placed on the agenda, only to see it cast aside in favour of our issues assigned a higher priority. It’s time the government stopped dragging it’s feet on this issue and give Australian women access to paid maternity leave.

I understand that civil servants get maternity leave, but many in the private sector do not. Some action is warranted I think.

Planning Queen addresses our generation of parents who may be raising a generation of battery farm children.

I was one of the 80% of 7 - 8 year olds who walked to school on their own (or with siblings). Yet I am not comfortable about letting my eldest son to do the same.

I am with you here. Our kids are ferried to and fro regularly. I wrote about the injustice of being deprived of my car and being forced to walk and take the bus with the kids last weekend. My mum didn't learn to drive until I was nearly in High School, so the car was only available on Saturdays to ferry us around. We are so lucky to have access to our gas guzzling chariots. My wife's attitude is that they can walk to school when they start College. Only semi serious there.

Anne has some thoughts on appropriate food for Australia Day and it doesn't involve Sam Kekovich or witchity grubs. How UnAustralian.

Australians really are lucky with the range of food available all year round. I still remember the very seasonal nature of the Scottish greengrocer. Everyone got excited when the turnips and the spring potatoes came in.

Lights Camera Action! Charly Banana presents The Christopher Robin Interview!

Where's Pooh and Eeyore? Actually it is a band. Duh! Where's the mosh pit?

Miscellaneous Mum has an exciting announcement!

Yeah from me! Pretty complicated stuff pulling together a kids book. I was interested to hear Mem Fox talk about the challenges of integrating the illustration with the text one day. The visual sides of her books are one of the most appealing things and she didn't even do it.

Craig Harper has some career advice.

Being the poster girl for compliance is great for everyone around you, not so good for you. It's gonna kill you. Maybe not literally, but emotionally, psychologically and creatively, you will continue to die a little bit more each day. You know that. You've known it for a long time.

Pretty confronting. I have mixed feelings about this one, but anything you say Craig.

Gavin R. Putland presents some more interesting economics stuff. This post has the intriguing title of How the Left Could Get to Like Retail Tax.

Conventional wisdom holds that replacing income tax with a consumption tax would be regressive, and that it would devalue past savings by raising prices. Both objections assume that gross wages and salaries would stay the same. If, instead, net wages and salaries stay the same, both objections disappear.

I had no idea that anyone liked retail tax. I think I will leave that one to Gavin. A little over my head.

Rob Moshe presents Live Your Best Life By Serving Others.

As I reflect further, I see that I always feel best when I am serving others. It is a great feeling to move beyond yourself and help others achieve their dreams and goals.

Craig Brown presents Better Projects: What skills do business analysts need?

This blog discusses project management and business analysis. This particular post looks at the results of a scan of job ads and identifies the key skills employers are looking for in business analysts.

For potential real estate moguls, the third Craig presents a summary of the ANZ Property Outlook for 2008.

I have just launched a new online business and have started an accompanying blog to help promote it. Evaluator (the website) is all about ordering property reports. The Evaluator (the blog) is all about sharing knowledge about the property market. Enjoy!

Well that is quite enough Craigs for one Carnival. Next time there will be a two Craig per Aussie Carnival limit.

And last but by no means least, Martin Russell presents information on SendOutCards, a means to promote small business and plans to expand into Australia.

With these I might even remember my relatives birthdays. My wife loves to send out cards and gets upset when she misses birthdays. Maybe this is a service for her.

The Carnival of Australia needs you to post, submit, host or just read this and all other Carnivals. The consequence of not doing this is severe and may include hair loss, high blood pressure and a weekend on a Desert Island with John Howard. Now that wasn't too hard, was it?

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Aegean Whales and Dolphins hit Scotland

It's getting warm in Scotland.

Next up coral and tropical fish. Plans are being considered for the development of the European equivalent of the Great Barrier Reef, which is facing bleaching and a threat to the ecosystem from warming oceans in the Southern Hemisphere.