Do y’all remember that there was some song or chant from when we were kids? And the leader would go “Can’t go over it” and everyone else would drone “Can’t go over it.
“Can’t go under it.” Can’t go under it.
“Gotta go through it.” Gotta go through it.
That’s all of it I can remember, though, but it is with me this morning. I took next week off because I need some long days in the hammock or working in the yard to clear some grief and spiderwebs in my soul. I am about at the end of my rope on all different fronts. And I need to be doing something other than the things I am doing to reset myself.
I didn’t realize that my parents were going to be here for the whole week.
And no matter how much I say “I’m not going to Georgia with you,” theres still some talk of an ill-advised family trip down there.
I will not be going. But I have been amusing myself by imagining such trips. I mean, really, is there anyone other than Will Campbell who can sit one week with congresscritters talking about the evils of 287(g) and then the next week be on a trip to hang out with the Klan? I mean at least successfully?
Does the FBI still keep files on everybody? Because I would love to FOI mine then, just for the WTF?s written in the field notes.
Anyway, I will be going through it. Whatever happens. I am going through it.
Tiny Cat Pants 
So high, can’t go over it
So low, can’t go over it
So wide, can’t go around it
Must go through at the door.
The good news is that there is a door. Figure out how to turn the lights on and you’ll see it and walk out.
It’s “Going on a Bear Hunt”, at least at the pre-school level
We’re going on a Bear Hunt
Gonna catch a big one
What a beautiful day
We’re not scared!
Uh-Oh, Grass!
Long, wavy grass
Can’t go over it
Can’t go under it
Uh-No, gotta go through it
Repeat ad nauseum
LE
I’ve also heard it as a hunt for other animals.
The version that I’m talking about is a traditional gospel song that was covered by Elvis and wound up being sung a lot at Girl Scout camps and VBS-type kids activities in the 1970s. God’s so big (and the Kingdom of Heaven so impregnable) that you gotta come in at the door.
I know the one Bridgett knows, too. I never heard the animal hunt one.
Rock-a my soul in the bosom of Abraham
Rock-a my soul in the bosom of Abraham
Rock-a my soul in the bosom of Abraham
Oh, rock-a my soul.
So high you can’t go over it,
So low you can’t go under it,
So wide you can’t get around it,
Oh rock-a my soul.
that brought back memories… I haven’t thought about that chat in years…
I, too, know the one Bridgett knows. The other, thankfully, passed my childhood by.
Oh my god. I have “Rock-a my soul in the bosom of Abraham” and “Going on a bear hunt” transmogrified into the same song in my head!
Ha, that tickles me.
That chant sounds like the logic path we use at work to decide when to put in a bridge.
Can we go through it? No.
Can we go around it? No.
Okay, just span it.
W. it does not surprise me to learn that the State of Tennessee uses “Going on a Bear Hunt” as a guide for deciding major construction problems.
It just makes me a little jealous of the day when you will be able to use your children to help you in your job.
Hmmm… was that questioning my professionalism? I did get both of my degrees from TN colleges…
Not yours, sweetie. Not yours. But have you been on the interstates here through Nashville? The best excuse would be “Babies drew the route and we didn’t realize it until it was too late.”
Oh, and here I thought it was, “oh, you mean people are going to use these interchanges to get from one interstate to another, and they’re going to need time/space to get into the proper lane to do so? Ohhhhh! It never occurred to us. We thought it was just seeing how interesting we could make the designs.”
Clearly, W is going to have an uphill battle getting that mindset changed there. We need to give him all the encouragement we can.
Give them a break. They needed the designs to be “shovel ready” so they qualify for the golden stimulus money. No time to double check things.
All the interchanges B and I are talking about are already in existence. Though Jim’s ability to be slightly misinformed on any number of threads is, of course, amusing.
NM, no, no, what it is, and I know W. can’t confirm this, for obvious reasons, but it’s true is that the folks who worked at TDOT when they were putting in the interstates found a prophecy that foretold the arrival of the stimulus package and they knew that they would prepare for it with weird road designs–not for their own benefit, but for the benefit of the state in the future!!!!
Oh, Jim, I’m sorry. I do have to pick on you a little bit.
Was that in Nostradamus, or in the super duper secret prophecy the Pope is sitting on from Fátima?
My sister FOI’d her file because she was just convinced that the gummint was watching all of her radical, anti-establishment activities. Imagine her surprise to learn that … she didn’t HAVE an FBI file.
Of course, if you ask for one and it doesn’t exist, wouldn’t that signal the gummint that maybe they *should* be watching you?
One strategy propounded by opponents of government surveillance on the left was to make the whole system cumbersome and unworkable by having everyone they could talk into it file a FOI letter, and the more innocent and disconnected politically the better. The theory was that the feds would then have to spend time and money retrieving the information requested. If there was no file, they’d have to store the request, thus starting a file. Eventually, the hope was that the entire shebang would become ludicrous from earnest overuse.
No such luck. Still, it’s always nice to find out that (for example) the guy I thought was a union-busting plant in our grad school union really was. Shoes never lie.
Actually, I suspect Jim is close to the truth on the reasons the inner interstate loop is the way it is. It wasn’t ‘stimulus’ money, but the federal government was throwing around an awful lot of money to get the interstates built.
I have to admit that the I-40 design does offend me from a professional standpoint. But back in those days there wasn’t much of a body of knowledge about high speed traffic. Plus we’re way beyond the level of traffic that was supposed to be on that road. And I’d say they were pretty hemmed in by what land they could use.