6 Charles Bukowski quotes that will shake your mind.

Inspired by Hemingway, Bukowski wrote about the underbelly of Los Angeles. Charles Bukowski quotes can shock us into thinking differently about the world.

Charles Bukowski was born in Germany but came with his family to live in Los Angeles when he was three years old. When he finished school, he moved to New York to pursue a career as a writer. He had little success though and gave up writing.
Instead, he took up a variety of jobs from dishwasher to post office clerk to support himself. He also drank heavily at this stage of his life.
Eventually, after he came ill with a bleeding ulcer, he returned to writing novels, short stories, and poetry. He went on to publish more than forty-five books.
Bukowski’s writing often featured the darker elements of society. He depicted a depraved city full of malice and violence. His work contained strong language and sexual imagery.
He died of leukemia in San Pedro on March 9, 1994.
The following Charles Bukowski quotes are delightfully dark and full of humor. Bukowski certainly had an unconventional way of looking at things. His quotes can shock us out of our old, stale ideas and help us look at things in a new way.

Here are six of my favorite Charles Bukowski quotes.

“Sometimes you climb out of bed in the morning and you think, I’m not going to make it, but you laugh inside — remembering all the times you’ve felt that way.”

I love this quote because it represents something we all feel from time to time. Some mornings we wonder how we will ever get through the day. Bukowski reminds us to think about all the days we have got through. Sometimes, laughing at our bleakest moments is the best way to give our spirits a lift.

“Things get bad for all of us, almost continually, and what we do under the constant stress reveals who/what we are.”

This quote is from Bukowski’s volume of poetry entitled What Matters Most is How Well You Walk Through the Fire. This insight is so true. We get to see what people are really like in times of crisis or long-term stress. Some people crumple and sink into a victim mentality. Others rise to the occasion.

When we find people that are heroes in difficult times, we should hold on to them. And of course, we should try to be heroes for other people, too.

“We are like roses that have never bothered to bloom when we should have bloomed and it is as if the sun has become disgusted with waiting.”

To be honest, I’m not sure I totally understand this quote. However, something about it speaks to me. I guess it’s about reaching our full potential. It reminds me of the quote from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker “I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it.”
Both these quotes help me to try to stop whining, moaning and complaining. Instead, I should be grateful for all I have, appreciate the blessing of life and do my best to fulfill my purpose on earth.

“The free soul is rare, but you know it when you see it – basically because you feel good, very good, when you are near or with them.”

This quote is from Bukowski’s collection of short stories Tales of Ordinary Madness. This collection explores the dark, dangerous lowlife of Los Angeles that Bukowski experienced. The stories feature the full range of American culture from prostitutes to classical music.
I love this quote because it rings true in my experience. Sometimes, you meet someone who just feels good to be around. These people are free from the constraints of society. They don’t care what other people think. They don’t judge and aren’t competitive. These kinds of people make us glad to be alive. I am lucky enough to know a few people like this and I hold them dear.

“You have to die a few times before you can really live.”

This quote is from another collection of poetry The People Look Like Flowers at Last. It is an inspiring quote for when things go really wrong in life. When a dream fails or a relationship falls apart, it can feel like a kind of death.

This quote helps us to understand that these little deaths help us to really live. If our lives went smoothly and we always got what we wanted, we wouldn’t appreciate the good things. We would be only half alive.

“We’re all going to die, all of us, what a circus! That alone should make us love each other but it doesn’t. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities, we are eaten up by nothing.”

This is my favorite of all Charles Bukowski quotes. Because we know everyone dies, we should be full of compassion for everyone. However, we are often eaten up by jealousy, anger, competition, and fear. It is a sad state of affairs, indeed.
If we could remember this quote whenever we interact with others it would change how we lived our lives.

Closing thoughts

Charles Bukowski quotes may not be for everybody. Some of them seem pretty impenetrable and deep, not to mention dark. If you prefer a quote about rainbows and butterflies, his type of humor might not be for you. But sometimes, looking at the absurdities of life gives us a little jolt. We realize that our trivial worries are ridiculous and we may as well stop worrying about petty matters and get on with the business of living.
References:

Wikipedia

A Japanese doctor who studied longevity — and lived to 105 — reveals the key to living a long life

  On July 18, 2017 Japan lost a national treasure. He was the 105-year-old Dr. Shigeaki Hinohara.
Dr. Hinohara made a lion’s contribution to healthcare in Japan, both as a practicing medical doctor and as a physician. He headed five foundations in addition to being the president of St Luke’s International Hospital in Tokyo. He was responsible for introducing Japan’s system of comprehensive annual medical check-ups, which have been credited with greatly contributing to the country’s longevity, reports the BBC.
Those are laudable achievements, but it is his longevity and the fact that he saw patients until a few months before his death that defies everything we have come to expect of old age.
You may be wondering: how did he manage to live so long and live those years in a state of good health?
Did he follow a sensible diet? No.
Did he maintain a healthy work/life balance? No.
How about getting ample sleep? No.
Dr Hinohara, who worked 18 hours a day, 7 days a week, shared some of his thoughts with Judith Kawaguchi in the Japan Times.
Here are the key points:

• Energy comes from feeling good, not from eating well or sleeping a lot.
• It’s best not to tire the body with too many rules such as lunchtime and bedtime. We all remember how as children, when we were having fun, we often forgot to eat or sleep. Kawaguchi believes we can keep that attitude as adults, too.
• If you want to live long, don’t be overweight. “For breakfast I drink coffee, a glass of milk and some orange juice with a tablespoon of olive oil in it. Lunch is milk and a few cookies, or nothing when I am too busy to eat. Dinner is veggies, a bit of fish and rice, and, twice a week, 100 grams of lean meat.”
• There is no need to ever retire, but if one must, it should be a lot later than 65. He explained that the current retirement age was set at 65 half a century ago, when the average life-expectancy in Japan was 68 years. Today, people live longer, so they can work longer.

There is more, and it may surprise you as it did me. Kawaguchi recommends against taking a doctor’s advice at face value, animal therapies and the need for liberal and visual arts in healing.
“When a doctor recommends you take a test or have some surgery, ask whether the doctor would suggest that his or her spouse or children go through such a procedure. Contrary to popular belief, doctors can’t cure everyone. So why cause unnecessary pain with surgery?
“Music and animal therapy can help more than most doctors imagine.
“Pain is mysterious, and having fun is the best way to forget it. Hospitals must cater to the basic need of patients: We all want to have fun. At St. Luke’s we have music and animal therapies, and art classes.
“Science alone can’t cure or help people. Science lumps us all together, but illness is individual. Each person is unique, and diseases are connected to their hearts. To know the illness and help people, we need liberal and visual arts, not just medical ones.”
Now, there is a lot of food for thought.

New Image Reveals What Really Goes Into A Jar Of Nutella

Posted on 2017/01/20
Tags: junk food

By Jess Murray Truth Theory
 
A viral image has revealed that palm oil is one of the major ingredients in jars of Nutella, amongst excessive amounts of sugar.
The image displaying the true ingredients of the well-known, and globally adored, chocolate spread quickly went viral after its contents were revealed that many people did not expect. 

Different from the usual list of ingredients on the back of the jar that is commonly overlooked, this diagram shows layers of the brand’s five main ingredients in their raw form. These are palm oil, cocoa, hazelnuts, skimmed milk powder and sugar.
 
According to reports, the size of the labelled section in the diagram is said to represent the real proportion in the jar, which many were shocked to see was 50% white sugar. This image was released earlier this week following reports that Nutella may be taken out of supermarkets due to its “cancer-causing properties”. This came after a report, conducted by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), claimed that palm oil was more carcinogenic than any other oil. However, since the reports, Nutella has denied the claims that the hazelnut chocolate spread carries cancer risks, stating that the palm oil that they use in every jar is high quality and safe to eat.

Whilst Nutella would not confirm or deny if the image is accurate, due to claims that the recipe is top secret, the nutritional information on each jar, as well as the website, reveals that there is 8.5g of sugar in every tablespoon of the spread, which means that every 400g jar contains a huge quantity of 227.2g of sugar. This vast amount works out to be more than half the jar’s weight.

Another major ingredient that has caught many people’s attention is the use of palm oil. Whilst palm oil is the cheapest oil on the market, the use of it is highly controversial, as it has major links with deforestation of major rainforests, as well as wiping out huge wildlife populations. Although palm oil is used in a huge array of common products, from cosmetics to food, the excessive consumption of the oil has had a major negative effect on the natural world. Palm oil plantations currently cover over 27 million hectares of the Earth’s surface. 

This has resulted in a huge loss of forests and human settlements, as these areas are completely destroyed to make room for the oil plantations, which have since been referred to as “green deserts”.

Despite this, Nutella relies on the use of palm oil to create the distinctive smooth texture, as well as prolonging the product’s shelf life. Nutella, which is made by Ferrero, insists that the product would not be the same without the use of palm oil, and a switch to alternative ingredients could cost the company an additional $8-22 million a year.
After the image went viral Nutella said in a statement, “We don’t disclose the full proportions of the ingredients in Nutella as our recipe is unique and we wish to safeguard this. The product’s label provides simple and clear nutritional information per 15g portion, or two heaped teaspoons, as well as per 100g. The ingredients are also listed on the Nutella website.”
Ferrero, who manufacture Nutella, added, “One of Ferrero’s core nutritional beliefs is that small portion sizes help people to enjoy their favourite foods in moderation. The labelling on our products enables consumers to make informed choices and helps ensure that Nutella can be enjoyed as part of a balanced diet.”

In response to the recent cancer scare from Nutella products, they said, “The health and safety of consumers is an absolute and first priority for Ferrero and we confirm that Ferrero products are safe. The EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) has analysed the presence of contaminants in a large number of products and oils stating that the presence of contaminants depends on the oils and fats used as well as the processes they are subjected to.

“It is for this reason that Ferrero carefully selects quality raw materials and applies specific industrial processes that limit their presence to minimum levels, fully in line with the parameters defined by the EFSA. In addition, our auality teams constantly monitor such factors and guarantee the food safety of our products to the consumer.”

9 Amazing Examples of How We Influence Our Brains

The human brain is probably the most mysterious organ in our body. Scientists constantly learn new facts about its work, but it still hides lots of secrets.
Bright Side decided to acquaint you with the brightest discoveries of the last few years in the field of brain research. They will surely surprise you.

9. Chronic lack of sleep worsens memory.

© newregency   © paramount   © spirit-alex/depositphotos  

Scientists from the University of California at Berkeley have found convincing proof that a lack of sleep can worsen memory and cause Alzheimer’s. During a full night’s sleep, brain cells remove toxic compounds dangerous for our brain. If a person never gets enough sleep, it has a devastating effect on their brain cells.

8. Prolonged stress destroys the brain.

© cgart/depositphotos  

A decrease in memory, in the ability to learn, in self-control — these are the consequences that chronic stress is fraught with. In addition, it contributes to a person feeling irritation, anxiety, tension, and often being distracted.

7. Love and hate have a lot in common.

© antena3   © spirit-alex/depositphotos  

British scientists found out that love and hate originate in similar brain areas. However, unlike hatred, love significantly reduces the activity of the areas responsible for judgment and logical thinking. Click here to get acquainted with other details of the study.

6. The brain is sensitive to dehydration.

Our brain is almost 80% water. Therefore, even a moderate loss of fluid (about 2%) reduces concentration and vigilance and leads to the deterioration of short-term memory and other cognitive abilities.

5. Pregnancy changes the brain’s structure.

  

Scientists proved that pregnancy reduces the amount of gray matter in the brain areas responsible for social cognition and the ability to understand other people. All of it is necessary to strengthen the mother-baby connection, help a woman understand the needs of her child, and notice possible external dangers.

4. The abundance of sugar in the diet worsens memory and reduces the ability to learn.

The abundance of fructose in the diet slows down the brain and reduces its ability to learn, remember information, and concentrate. This is because the excess sugar destroys neural connections in the brain.
Scientists emphasize that industrially produced sugar is much more harmful (added to soft drinks, seasonings, sauces, and baby food). However, products containing omega-3 fatty acids (fatty fish, nuts, and fish oil) remove the consequences of the disorder.

3. Romantic love and maternal feelings are very similar.

  

It turns out that, according to brain activity, romantic relationships and maternal feelings are very similar, but there are differences as well. For example, passionate love activates the brain areas related to sexual arousal. In addition, the feeling of anxiety and fear decreases, and the feeling of euphoria increases. Maternal love activates the areas responsible for the formation of affection.

2. Painting improves the work of the brain.

  

A study showed that painting and contemplation of works of art improve the interaction between brain areas while slowing its aging. Scientists studied the influence of art on people aged 62 to 70 years. Half of them took a course in art history, and the other half took a course in painting. Painting classes gave a stronger result than art history.

1. Reading perfectly trains the brain.

  

Oxford scientists proved that the process of reading trains the cognitive abilities of the brain. It also activates areas that aren’t used at other times. When reading, blood enters the brain areas responsible for concentration and cognition. It’s noteworthy that this effect doesn’t occur when watching TV or playing computer games.

10 Women reveal the sex things they wish men would figure out quick

People usually learn about sex from pretty negligent sources. Most high school sex-ed teachers are awkward and dodge the dirty details, and porn is largely an unrealistic parody of what sex actually is like for most regular people. So people usually have to figure out for themselves what they like best – and what others like best – when doing the deed.
Actually doing it is the best way to learn about what works in the bedroom, and communication is just as important. You'll get the best idea of what your special person likes through actual, real-life conversations. But sometimes, people feel the need to talk about their sex lives on the internet, and so there is a wealth of information to mine there as well.
Just recently, a woman on Reddit posed the question, "what do you wish most men could learn about sex, in order to give you greater satisfaction?", and the internet came through. Of course, while everyone's preferences and deepest desires between the sheets are different, there are some things many women agree on.
Here are 10 things told by women about what they wish men would figure out about sex:

1. It's not all about the main course

"Never skimp on the foreplay. The build up is just as good as the finale."

2. Sex shouldn't be object-driven 

"I've asked this of a lot of women IRL. The top two answers seem to be: 1) Sex isn't all about the guys d*ck and 2) The goal isn't an orgasm."

3. Lessons in carpentry

"Please, for the love of god, don't rub our clits like you're trying to sand wood. More pressure doesn't mean it feels better. Make sure to get more sensation on the actual clit, and to move it, more so than just pushing on it."

4. Stop fretting

"D*ck size essentially doesn't matter."

5. Things don't have to be hard all the time

"News flash: you do not have to be hard the entire time for it to count as fun sex. Maybe you've been going down on me for a bit and your turgid friend isn't receiving direct attention so he starts to droop a bit. Maybe you had an intrusive thought about your mother and your body involuntarily shuts down for a second. Maybe your body just got tired of providing all the blood to sustain a perfect raging hard on and it needs a bit of recovery time. There are other things we can do besides ensuring the constant stiffness of your penis. This is not the only point of sex."

6. Take protection seriously

"I don't want to have sex without a condom... being able to relax about STD's and STI's means I can enjoy sex."

7. Manners, please

"So many dudes have used degrading/insulting language without checking in with me first, because they heard it in porn and thought it was sexy. 'Yeah you like that you little sl*t/b*tch/wh*re?' well not anymore my dude. Just be nice to me unless I tell you otherwise!"

8. Communicate while you consummate

"It's okay to ask if you're not sure. Any woman worth having sex with isn't going to kick you out for occasionally asking 'Is this okay?' or 'Does this feel good?' Obviously don't check in like that every single time you move your hands/lips/d*ck, but if you start doing something and her reaction seems difficult to read or you feel a bit anxious about whether she's enjoying it or not, then just ask."

 

9. Don't rush it

"Give me some time to warm up and enjoy myself before it's all d*ck all the time. Likewise, don't go diving into panties super fast, either. The clothes will come off when I'm comfortable or you get me so horny I must strip."

10. This is most important of all

"There's no 'one-size-fits-all' (haha) thing all women like. Maybe foreplay, but that's so general. I think listening to what women like and encouraging them to give feedback on things that feel good is the best advice for men who want to sexually please women."

Maybe you agree, maybe you disagree. Are there other things you wish men knew about how to sexually satisfy you? Probably. But really, that's one for you to talk about with your partner face-to-face.

21 Awesome Stories About First Dates from Masters of Flirting

A great and beautiful feeling can begin with a funny and awkward moment. But that’s even better: you’ll have something to remember and laugh about together.
We found some great stories of totally unromantic first meetings, and we would like to share them with you.
* This morning, I bought myself a cup of coffee, looked at it after a few steps, and saw “Call me” written with chocolate crumbs in the foam. I smiled but couldn’t understand how to call until I drank all the coffee. There was his number written on the bottom of the cup. This was the sweetest pickup attempt in my whole life.
* Going down in an elevator with the taxi to the airport already waiting outside, I suddenly realize I forgot to put insoles into my boots. I go back up to the 20th floor, too slowly, thinking I’d rush to my apartment for the insoles and back before the elevator’s gone. Then I see a girl on my floor. I ask her to wait for me for just a couple of seconds. She gives me a coquettish smile and nods. I run for the insoles and hear the elevator doors closing. Thinking why she would be so mean, I come back, and there she is waiting for me without the elevator.
* There she goes along the street — pretty, stylish. And I just went numb with fear, but I had to talk to her. I approach her, grinning like an idiot, and mumble, “Excuse me. What’s the time, please?“
She produces her phone and tells me. I needed all this only to start a conversation, and the main question was ahead. Finally, I found my guts and asked, ”Do you believe in God?”
* I was going home by bus and listening to the radio. They read the horoscope, and when I realized I wouldn’t hear about my sign, I decided to go an extra stop. When I got off the bus, a guy came down with me and asked, “Excuse me, are you also an Aquarius living at the previous stop?”

* A story told by my teacher. He was going home from the university and saw a couple of girls, his then groupmates. He decided to impress them: he stealthily ran into a house that was closed for renovation, climbed onto a ledge on the first floor, and jumped from about 5 feet onto the pavement right before the girls, but hitched on a metal rod… As a result, two fractured arms and a concussion. On the bright side, the girls took him in and called an ambulance and then visited him in the hospital. Now, he’s been married to one of them for 25 years.
* I love my dad. When I was a kid, he came home drunk, produced a kitten from a pocket, and said, “Sonny, this is Bonifacius, and he’s all yours!“ My mom was angry at first but then settled. After a couple of years, he did the same thing with a dog: ”Sonny, this is Rex, and he’s all yours!” Mom was angry again and then okay again. Some years later, Dad came home with his colleague and his daughter and said, “Sonny, this is Sveta. Well, you get the idea.” We’ve been married for 3 years now.

* A small cafe. I’m drinking my coffee. At the bar is a pretty blonde girl, Lera. A small line of customers, everyone trying to impress her with insipid jokes. Then Andrew goes in, a former military officer. He apologizes, goes straight to the bar, produces a bill, and says, “Silver!“ Lera looks him up and down and gives him a pack of Parliament, saying, ”That’s a man: concise and to the point.“ Andrew thinks a bit, looks back at Lera, and says, “At eight!” To which she replies, without thinking, ”At nine!” To cut it short, Andrew was late but happy the next morning.

* Once I went to a museum to kill some time. It was pretty boring, and I began taking selfies. A really handsome guard approached me and said, “Excuse me, miss, but please don’t photograph the art objects.“ I apologized and explained that I was only taking a selfie, to which he replied, ”I know,” and winked at me.
* I was running after my bus, tripped, and fell over into a puddle. A man came along, helped me up, and asked, “You think you’ll make it faster by swimming?” That’s how we met.

* When I came to my new school in the 9th grade, my future wife was already there. Before September 1, she saw a new last name on the list and laughed at it, saying it was weird and making jokes with her friends. So naive.
* I once flirted with a bartender, a cute blonde girl. We were talking, and she asked me if I had a girlfriend. I said, “No, but I know what she’d look like if I had one. Wanna see a picture?“ She said, ”Yeah, sure.” Then I set my phone to the frontal camera and gave it to her. When she saw herself, she laughed and blushed.
* A guy I liked very much asked me out to a restaurant. I was a student then with no money and only naked pasta for every meal for two years. I thought I’d go and order a coffee if I had to pay for myself. When we got our menus, he said, “You hungry? Order something. It’s on me.” I leaf through the menu, smiling. And then a drop of my saliva falls on the table.

* A friend of mine once lost a wager. He had to go to some tall building at night and shout “Greg!“ for 40 minutes. So he comes to the house at 2 a.m. and starts shouting. Loudly. In about 20 minutes, a light goes on at the third floor, a window opens, and a bowl of cold water falls down on our guy. A girl looks out the window then and says, ”I thought you’d grown thirsty, shouting and all, so here’s some water.” The guy smiled and asked for some warmer water lest he should catch a cold. In a couple of minutes, another bowl of warmer water goes down. To cut it short, they started talking eventually. It’s been 5 years now, they’re expecting a second kid, and every year on the day of their meeting they go to a waterpark.
* When I studied in college, I worked as a bartender. Once I saw a guy approaching a girl and saying, “Hi, I’m Ben, and I’ll buy you cocktails until I’m handsome in your eyes.“ She smiled, then laughed. He asked her what she would like to drink. She looked at him (and he was really handsome), turned to me, and said, ”Water, please.” I’m sure they spent a great night.

* As a student, I worked at a local mall where I knew a beautiful and single shop assistant. My advances were very weird. I would change the position of every mannequin in her store each night: a hand here, a head there, make them look at each other, etc. I’d wait for her to understand it was me trying to get her attention. Then, one day I didn’t see her at work. Rumor had it she’d quit the job and told her boss the mannequins were alive. The boss got angry and made her go. If you read this, I’m sorry. I just wanted to get to know you.
* I was sitting at a cafe, drinking juice, and looking at a handsome guy. When our eyes met, I choked, and juice flowed out of my nose. The guy laughed, came to my table, and said, “Wow, you’re good at attracting men!”

12 Colorful Stories About How Badly We Need Vacations

Let’s all agree that vacations are the best thing ever. You want them to happen so much that you often find yourself counting down the days until they’re finally here. Sometimes even a month or two before…
We made a collection of 12 honest and ironic stories by people who may be just a little too eager to start their well-deserved vacation.
* I was finally given a vacation from work after coming to a 9 am meeting in my house slippers and pajamas, topped off with a suit jacket.
* We spent the whole vacation together… You came into my life when I first stepped foot on the southern shore. We were lying on the beach, sitting by the same table, sleeping together… You are in all of my vacation pictures. You went everywhere I went. I’ll never forget you. Thanks for the magical time, huge pimple on my face.
* It’s the third day of vacation. I set an alarm for 6 am. When it rings, I like to turn it off, roll over in my bed, and go back to sleep with a smile knowing that today I have to do a big fat lot of nothing.

* My boyfriend and I went on a beach vacation for the first time in four years of constant work. Clients call him all the time at work. On our first morning in the hotel, my alarm went off. Suddenly, he turned to me, wide awake, and said, “Please hold. I will call you right back.”
* My oh my, what a break I had today! I did laundry, cleaned the house, made lunch, did dishes again, marinated vegetables, made dinner, did dishes, tidied up some toys, took the kids for a walk, cleaned their shoes, folded some clothes, and put the children to bed. It’s 10 pm — time for my break now.
* I work as a nanny. I came to the realization that I needed a break when I found myself rocking and singing a lullaby to a cat.

* Remember when you could just run around the house in your underwear? You could yell, play, and watch cartoons all day long. Oh, what marvelous times they were… I want a vacation like that again. Sergey, 28.
* One time, we were getting ready for vacation, packing and repacking our things. While looking for our swimsuits, my 3-year-old son came in with eyes full of joy. “Mom, this year I can pay for everything on the trip myself! I saved up a whole lot since last summer!” In his hands, he was victoriously holding four dollars worth of coins.
* I took a vacation once. I told my colleagues that I was flying to some islands, but in reality I just kept the money by spending my break tanning on the balcony. Thank goodness it was pretty sunny then. And although there was no sea breeze on my face, and I didn’t have the sand under my toes, it was truly the most relaxing and cool vacation I’ve ever had.

* Today we had a gathering with all my coworkers. Everyone was back from vacation, and everyone brought a little something from wherever they had traveled. Someone got us wine, others magnets. One colleague showed up with little sculptures from Paris, and the highlight was a handmade soap from Turkey. And me? I equipped every one of them with a bag of homegrown tomatoes.
* I am a programmer. I realized it was time for me to take a break when I was trying to find “ctrl + c“ and ”ctrl + v” on an imaginary keyboard in my head, in order to copy paste my coworker’s delicious lunch.
* I can’t get you out of my head, especially lately… I always dream of summer because then we can reunite. We are going to have an amazing time together making new memories. You are my everything. My happiness, my hope, and my soul mate. We have so many things in common. When will I see you again, vacation?

Scientists Have Found That Intelligence Is Passed From Mothers, Not From Fathers [ "may have found..."]

Scientists Have Found That Intelligence Is Passed From Mothers, Not From Fathers

 

Scientists Have Found That Intelligence Is Passed From Mothers, Not From Fathers

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This article may anger a couple of dads, but according to a recent genetic study. we probably inherit our log of intelligence from the female X chromosome.
The X chromosome contains a thousand genes, and great number of them have an impact on perception. Until now, most doctors believed that parents contribute equally to their child’s intelligence.This research has been proven both correct and disputable.

Most studies indicate that genetics is a highly complex and demanding field of research. Despite strong disagreement on the subject, it’s best to approach these studies from an objective perspective. So, it’s helpful to present a couple of key facts about how X and Y chromosomes work.

A chromosome is a thread-like formation composed of nucleic acids and protein. They store and transfer genetic information. Every person has one pair of chromosomes in each cell of their body. The females have two X chromosomes, the males have one X and one Y chromosome.

As a rule, the genetic characteristic of gender-specific genes, like humans have, are either activated or deactivated depending upon the specific selection and, later on, the genetic properties being affected.The activated genes will have an impact on the genetic development, while deactivated genes will not. So if a single characteristic is affected via the mother, the fatherly genes are deactivated.

At the opposite side, if a single feature is affected via the father, the maternal genes are later deactivated. The structure of these gender-specific genes forms the foundation of intelligence research. Women are apparently more likely to have an impact on cognitive abilities, as women possess two X chromosomes, while men carry just one. There is certainly more to this theory of intelligence genetics than just X chromosomes.

This is where gender-specific genes come in. Intelligence is thought to be a highly-gender-specific gene that comes directly from the mother. Scientists used genetically-modified mice to test this theory through a study. They found that embryonic test subjects, which were administered mainly maternal genetic chromosomes, developed an improperly larger skull and brain while developing a much smaller body.

Subjects treated with larger amounts of paternal genetic material developed a larger body, but a smaller skull and brain. In addition to this, researchers made other significant observations, like identifying six areas of the brain what contain exclusively either maternal or paternal genes.

The theory that mothers have an asymmetrically large  influence on a child’s intelligence is not a new one. In 1984, the University of Cambridge studied both brain development and genomic conditioning. Cambridge scientists ultimately concluded that maternal genetics provide more material to brain centers. Similar discoveries are being made to this day. In a particularly informative study, researchers from a government agency in Scotland followed a group of 12,686 people aged 14 to 22. Each year, researchers interviewed the subjects and monitored how their intelligence developed, taking into account their educational and ethnic backgrounds. They categorically concluded that a mother’s IQ the best indicator of high intelligence.

It’s certain that this theory won’t be widely accepted by everyone, even if it’s unquestionably proven. There is however one certain fact that can be deduced from all this, and that is that mothers have a significant influence on their children’s cognitive capacity.
And it’s not just because of genetics, either. Nutrition and nurture influence a child’s intellectual development constantly throughout life.

Even more so, the special bond between a mother and child provides motivation for them to explore the world and solve problems together. Women play a much larger part in the child’s intellectual development,than genetics studies give them credit. All signs show that our mothers give us brainpower.Thanks, Mom!…

 

7 Daily Habits Of Highly Successful People

There are few individuals in this world that simply do and accomplish extraordinary things that us mere mortals find hard to comprehend. What is it that makes them so different to us? We’re all human with our basic wants and needs. However, after many studies in what drives success, there’s been some key characteristics that show up repeatedly, time and time again with all of the great minds of our time. So what are these? and can we learn to train ourselves to mimic this? Well give it a go and you’ll be moving in the right direction. The true test will be forming a habit to do it unconsciously, so it is second nature. It’s not as simple as it sounds….here are the top 7 daily habits of highly successful people.

1. Work outside your comfort zone and give it a go

Top entrepreneurs seem to thrive when they are stretched. They are always pushing the boundaries of ‘what if’, ‘how can i make that work’, ‘how can I do that better’! They challenge the norm and are not prepared to settle for the way things are. They are ‘creators’ and mostly work in the unknown. This for most of us means stepping outside our comfort zone and questioning the world around us, looking for opportunities to improve.

Do you know what your comfort zone is? It’s the state in which one feels familiar, at ease and in control. Going outside this means that you’re body is consistently in a state of anxiety and stress. Some people move away from this, as they are risk averse, while most of the worlds top entrepreneurs thrive on it, willing to take the risks, so that they can live on the edge, constantly evolving, adapting and expanding their horizons. When you find yourself in unfamiliar territory, thats when the magic happens!

2. Plan each day before it begins, so you wake up with purpose and action

Most of us dread waking up in the morning because it means having to face another day at the office. Sunday night is often cited as the most dreaded of all because it means having to face another week just like the previous one. Who wants to live a life that they dread?

Top entrepreneurs rarely have the same day, they are always planning on how to make it different, better, more exciting, more purposeful, more meaningful. They take the time to plan their future, whether it’s weeks, months or years from now, even down to planning the night before, so that they wake up energised, on purpose, excited and with pre-planned actions to ensure they move one step closer to achieving their goals. How much of your life is planned and how much do you leave to chance?

3. Work in a collaborative environment and surround yourself with smart people

Some of the worlds leading entrepreneurs like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson and Mark Zuckerberg all had great ideas and a vision to making it a reality. What they also had was a great team around them right from the beginning. They ensured that they had smart people to collaborate with, strategise with and ultimately work with. In a team environment, everyone achieves more – its true.

Collaboration allows you to refine your thinking and challenge yourself. You are only limited by your thinking and when you are stretched to become better by those around you, that is when you and your team can shine and do something really wonderful!

4. Track the details but always focus on the BIG picture

It’s tough to find the right balance between the big picture and the fine details. Details will always serve you well because it means having a strong grasp on your business and understanding what works and what doesn’t, being able to track results and make changes or improvements based on facts not guesswork. However, as technician entrepreneurs sometimes we get lost in the ‘doing’ and not enough on ‘building’.

We spend too much time IN and not ON the business. Never losing sight of WHY you are in business and what your end goals are will help you prioritise on the work you end up doing in your business. If you are not building your business, then who is? Top entrepreneurs find great people to help them get the work done, while they spend their time on how to take the business to the next level. Don’t get lost in the details!

5. Get the job done

It’s human behaviour to procrastinate. We all do it whether we like to admit it or not. The only difference is the degree to how much we can control it. You’ll find that some of the best entrepreneurs have a laser-like focus when it comes to getting their planned jobs done. At times they are almost obsessed and selfish, often making sacrifices most of us would not be prepared to make. However, they achieve extra-ordinary success. This is why they can get more done in a day than some of us can do in a week or a month.

So how can we learn from this? If you have an important task to accomplish, like making those customer calls, then make it your priority to get it done. Do the dishes later, mow the lawn on the weekend, don’t let TV distract you and avoid spending hours in front of Facebook. Sure you may be able to multi-task, but we all know that when you focus 100% on a given task, you are so much more productive and likely to get it done. At the end of the day, lead from the front and get it done!

6. Never give up and refuse to take no for an answer

How do you react when you hit a wall? Do you feel at times like the wind has been sucked out of your sails? When all options are exhausted and you are staring down the barrel at defeat? These are the times we all dread because for most of us, it’s the end of the road. Most people will give up as soon as they hit their first hurdle. Few will go past and only the stubborn and dogged amongst us will persevere long enough and far enough to climb that mountain we all need to eventually climb. Top entrepreneurs look for these mountains even before they begin. They choose to build their business for the pure pleasure of successfully navigating past where no one has been before, forever changing the landscape behind them. Almost all of them are deemed crazy by those around them, and they have to contend with people saying it can’t be done, it’s not possible.

Think of the Wright brothers trying to make human beings fly! Back in those days, they were the laughing stock of everyone around them. However they were not interested in the ‘no’s, instead they were obsessed in finding a way to make it happen and they refused to give up. Today we wouldn’t be able to imagine a world without planes. It’s united the world which has forever changed how economies have evolved. Have YOU given up on YOUR dream?

7. Always look to grow and learn

One of our great capacities as human beings is to grow and learn. We have this unique ability and our brain is well equipped for the task. To this day we as humans have only barely scratched the surface when it comes to tapping our potential. Unfortunately most of us stop actively learning and growing once our formal education stops and we allow ourselves to just remain stagnant in our jobs and family lives. The world on the other hand is unforgiving and is constantly moving forward, times are changing and the way we do things is moving at such a phenomenal rate we just can’t afford to not be constantly learning and growing.

If you are in business, how active are you in researching the latest trends, tools, resources, technology and people to help you move forward faster? Are you trying to do it all on your own with ill advice or no advice at all, or are you looking to develop your skills, grow as a person and evolve your state of being, so that you become a new age entrepreneur.  Elon Musk – best known as the inventor of the Tesla electric car and having co-founded PayPal is known for having said ‘I think It’s very important to have a feedback loop, where you´re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better”.

These are just 7 habits that you can start to work on today. Make your life great and your business a game changer. You already have everything you need to make this happen – now it’s up to you to have the right attitude, mindset and habits to see it through.

American Pie by Don McLean-- the story

American Pie by Don McLean

Album: American PieReleased: 1971

Get the Sheet Music

• According to McLean (as posted on his website), this song was originally inspired by the death of Buddy Holly. "The Day The Music Died" is February 3, 1959, when Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper were killed in a plane crash after a concert. McLean wrote the song from his memories of the event ("Dedicated to Buddy Holly" was printed on the back of the album cover).
  
  The Beatles Sgt. Pepper album was also a huge influence, and McLean has said in numerous interviews that the song represented the turn from innocence of the '50s to the darker, more volatile times of the '60s - both in music and politics.
  
  McLean was a 13-year-old paperboy in New Rochelle, New York when Holly died. He learned about the plane crash when he cut into his stack of papers and saw the lead story.
• Talking about how he composed this song when he was a guest on the UK show Songbook, McLean explained: "For some reason I wanted to write a big song about America and about politics, but I wanted to do it in a different way. As I was fiddling around, I started singing this thing about the Buddy Holly crash, the thing that came out (singing), 'Long, long time ago, I can still remember how that music used to make me smile.'
  
  I thought, Whoa, what's that? And then the day the music died, it just came out. And I said, Oh, that is such a great idea. And so that's all I had. And then I thought, I can't have another slow song on this record. I've got to speed this up. I came up with this chorus, crazy chorus. And then one time about a month later I just woke up and wrote the other five verses. Because I realized what it was, I knew what I had. And basically, all I had to do was speed up the slow verse with the chorus and then slow down the last verse so it was like the first verse, and then tell the story, which was a dream. It is from all these fantasies, all these memories that I made personal. Buddy Holly's death to me was a personal tragedy. As a child, a 15-year-old, I had no idea that nobody else felt that way much. I mean, I went to school and mentioned it and they said, 'So what?' So I carried this yearning and longing, if you will, this weird sadness that would overtake me when I would look at this album, The Buddy Holly Story, because that was my last Buddy record before he passed away."
• This song made the 26-year-old McLean very famous very quickly, which was difficult for the songwriter. McLean was prone to depression, losing his father at age 15 and dealing with a bad marriage when recording the album. So when the song hit, it thrust him into the spotlight and took the focus away from the body of his work. In a 1973 interview with NME, he explained: "I was headed on a certain course, and the success I got with 'American Pie' really threw me off. It just shattered my lifestyle and made me quite neurotic and extremely petulant. I was really prickly for a long time. If the things you're doing aren't increasing your energy and awareness and clarity and enjoyment, then you feel as though you're moving blindly. That's what happened to me. I seemed to be in a place where nothing felt like anything, and nothing meant anything. Literally nothing mattered. It was very hard for me to wake up in the morning and decide why it was I wanted to get up."
• Contrary to rumors, the plane that crashed was not named the "American Pie" - Dwyer's Flying Service did not name their planes. McLean made up the name.
• McLean admits that this song is about Buddy Holly, but has never said what the lyrics are about, preferring to let listeners interpret them on their own. In these next few Songfacts, we'll take a look at some logical interpretations:
  "The Jester" is probably Bob Dylan. It refers to him wearing "A coat he borrowed from James Dean," and being "On the sidelines in a cast." Dylan wore a red jacket similar to James Dean's on the cover of The Freewheeling Bob Dylan, and got in a motorcycle accident in 1966 which put him out of service for most of that year. Dylan also made frequent use of jokers, jesters or clowns in his lyrics. The line, "And a voice that came from you and me" could refer to the folk style he sings, and the line, "And while the king was looking down the jester stole his thorny crown" could be about how Dylan took Elvis Presley's place as the number one performer.
• The line "Eight miles high and falling fast" is likely a reference to The Byrds' hit "Eight Miles High." Regarding the line, "The birds (Byrds) flew off from a fallout shelter," a fallout shelter is a '60s term for a drug rehabilitation facility, which one of the band members of The Byrds checked into after being caught with drugs.
• The section with the line "The flames climbed high into the night" is probably about the Altamont Speedway concert in 1969. While the Rolling Stones were playing, a fan was stabbed to death by a member of The Hells Angels who was hired for security.
• The line "Sergeants played a marching tune" is likely a reference to The Beatles' album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
• The line "I met a girl who sang the blues and I asked her for some happy news, but she just smiled and turned away" is probably about Janis Joplin. She died of a drug overdose in 1970.
• The lyric "And while Lenin/Lennon read a book on Marx" has been interpreted different ways. Some view it as a reference to Vladimir Lenin, the communist dictator who led the Russian Revolution in 1917 and who built the USSR, which was later ruled by Josef Stalin. The "Marx" referred to here would be the socialist philosopher Karl Marx. Others believe it is about John Lennon, whose songs often reflected a very communistic theology (particularly "Imagine"). Some have even suggested that in the latter case, "Marx" is actually Groucho Marx, another cynical entertainer who was suspected of being a socialist, and whose wordplay was often similar to Lennon's lyrics.
• "Did you write the book of love" is probably a reference to the 1958 hit "Book of Love" by the Monotones. The chorus for that song is "Who wrote the book of love? Tell me, tell me... I wonder, wonder who" etc. One of the lines asks, "Was it someone from above?" Don McLean was a practicing Catholic, and believed in the depravity of '60s music, hence the closing lyric: "The Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost, they caught the last train for the coast, the day the music died." Some, have postulated that in this line, the Trinity represents Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper. >>
• Some more interpretations:
  
  "And moss grows fat on our rolling stone" - Mick Jagger's appearance at a concert in skin-tight outfits, displaying a roll of fat, unusual for the skinny Stones frontman. Also, the words, "You know a rolling stone don't gather no moss" appear in the Buddy Holly song "Early in the Morning," which is about his ex missing him early in the morning when he's gone.
  
  "The quartet practiced in the park" - The Beatles singing at Shea Stadium.
  
  "And we sang dirges in the dark, the day the music died" - The '60s peace marches.
  
  "Helter Skelter in a summer swelter" - The Manson Family's attack on Sharon Tate and others in California.
  
  "We all got up to dance, Oh, but we never got the chance, 'cause the players tried to take the field, the marching band refused to yield" - The huge numbers of young people who went to Chicago for the 1968 Democratic Party National Convention, and who thought they would be part of the process ("the players tried to take the field"), only to receive a violently rude awakening by the Chicago Police Department nightsticks (the commissions who studied the violence after-the-fact would later term the Chicago PD as "conducting a full-scale police riot") or as McLean calls the police "the marching band."
• Madonna covered this in 2000 for the movie The Next Best Thing. Her version topped the UK charts and peaked at #29 in the US. It was her friend, the English actor Rupert Everett, who suggested Madonna record a cover of this song and sang backup on her version.
  
  On January 29, 2007 Madonna's recording was voted the worst ever cover version in a poll by BBC 6 Music. Despite the critical derision, McLean had good things to say about Madonna's cover, and he released this statement: "Madonna is a colossus in the music industry and she is going to be considered an important historical figure as well. She is a fine singer, a fine songwriter and record producer, and she has the power to guarantee success with any song she chooses to record. It is a gift for her to have recorded 'American Pie.' I have heard her version and I think it is sensual and mystical. I also feel that she's chosen autobiographical verses that reflect her career and personal history. I hope it will cause people to ask what's happening to music in America. I have received many gifts from God but this is the first time I have ever received a gift from a goddess."
  
  Madonna was supposed to perform her version at the Super Bowl in 2001, but backed out, claiming she did not have enough time to prepare. No one was too upset.
• At 8 minutes 32 seconds, this is the longest song in length to hit #1 on the Hot 100. The single was split in two parts because the 45 did not have enough room for the whole song on one side. The A-side ran 4:11 and the B-side was 4:31 - you had to flip the record in the middle to hear all of it. Disc jockeys usually played the album version at full length, which was to their benefit because it gave them time for a snack, a cigarette or a bathroom break.
• In 1971, a singer named Lori Lieberman saw McLean perform this at the Troubadour theater in Los Angeles. She claimed that she was so moved by the concert that her experience became the basis for her song "Killing Me Softly With His Song," which was a huge hit for Roberta Flack in 1973. When we spoke with Charles Fox, who wrote "Killing Me Softly" with Norman Gimbel, he explained that when Lieberman heard their song, it reminded her of the show, and she had nothing to do with writing the song.
• McLean (from his website): "I'm very proud of the song. It is biographical in nature and I don't think anyone has ever picked up on that. The song starts off with my memories of the death of Buddy Holly. But it moves on to describe America as I was seeing it and how I was fantasizing it might become, so it's part reality and part fantasy but I'm always in the song as a witness or as even the subject sometimes in some of the verses. You know how when you dream something you can see something change into something else and it's illogical when you examine it in the morning but when you're dreaming it seems perfectly logical. So it's perfectly okay for me to talk about being in the gym and seeing this girl dancing with someone else and suddenly have this become this other thing that this verse becomes and moving on just like that. That's why I've never analyzed the lyrics to the song. They're beyond analysis. They're poetry." >>
• This song did a great deal to revive interest in Buddy Holly. Says McLean: "By 1964, you didn't hear anything about Buddy Holly. He was completely forgotten. But I didn't forget him, and I think this song helped make people aware that Buddy's legitimate musical contribution had been overlooked. When I first heard 'American Pie' on the radio, I was playing a gig somewhere, and it was immediately followed by 'Peggy Sue.' They caught right on to the Holly connection, and that made me very happy. I realized that it was actually gonna perform some good works."
• In 2002, this was featured in a Chevrolet ad. It showed a guy in his Chevy singing along to the end of this song. At the end, he gets out and it is clear that he was not going to leave the car until the song was over. The ad played up the heritage of Chevrolet, which has a history of being mentioned in famous songs (the line in this one is "Drove my Chevy to the levee"). Chevy used the same idea a year earlier when it ran billboards of a red Corvette that said, "They don't write songs about Volvos."
• Weird Al Yankovic did a parody of this song for his 1999 album Running With Scissors. It was called "The Saga Begins" and was about Star Wars: The Phantom Menace written from the point of view of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Sample lyric: "Bye, bye this here Anakin guy, maybe Vader someday later but now just a small fry."
  
  It was the second Star Wars themed parody for Weird Al - his first being "Yoda," which is a takeoff on "Lola" by The Kinks. Al admitted that he wrote "The Saga Begins" before the movie came out, entirely based on Internet rumors.
• While being interviewed in the 1991, McLean was asked for probably the 1000th time "What does the song 'American Pie' mean to you?," to which he answered, "It means never having to work again for the rest of my life."
• The line "Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack Flash sat on a candle stick" is taken from a nursery rhyme that goes "Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack jump over the candlestick." Jumping over the candlestick comes from a game where people would jump over fires. "Jumpin' Jack Flash" is a Rolling Stones song. Another possible reference to The Stones can be found in the line, "Fire is the devils only friend," which could be The Rolling Stones "Sympathy For The Devil," which is on the same Rolling Stones album. >>
• McLean wrote the opening verse first, then came up with the chorus, including the famous title. The phrase "as American as apple pie" was part of the lexicon, but "American Pie" was not. When McLean came up with those two words, he says "a light went off in my head."
  
  In the liner notes to the 2003 reissue of the album, McLean said: "A month or so later I was in Philadelphia and I wrote the rest of the song. I was trying to figure out what this song was trying to tell me and where it was supposed to go. That's when I realized it had to go forward from 1957 and it had to take in everything that has happened. I had to be a witness to the things going o, kind of like Mickey Mouse in Fantasia. I didn't know anything about hit records. I was just trying to make the most interesting and exciting record that I could. Once the song was written, there was no doubt that it was the whole enchilada. It was clearly a very interesting, wonderful thing and everybody knew it."
• When the original was released at a whopping 8:32, some radio stations in the United States refused to play it because of a policy limiting airplay to 3:30. Some interpret the song as a protest against this policy. When Madonna covered the song many years later, she cut huge swathes of the song, ironically to make it more radio friendly, to 4:34 on the album and under 4 minutes for the radio edit. >>
• This song was enshrined in the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2002, 29 years after it was snubbed for the four categories it was nominated in. At the 1973 ceremony, "American Pie" lost both Song of the Year and Record of the year to "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face."
• Regarding the lyrics, "Jack Flash sat on a candlestick, 'cause fire is the devil's only friend," this could be a reference to the space program, and to the role it played in the Cold War between America and Russia throughout the '60s. It is central to McLean's theme of the blending of the political turmoil and musical protest as they intertwined through our lives during this remarkable point in history. Thus, the reference incorporates Jack Flash (the Rolling Stones), with our first astronaut to orbit the earth, John (common nickname for John is Jack) Glenn, paired with "Flash" an allusion to fire, with another image for a rocket launch, "candlestick," then pulls the whole theme together with "'cause fire is the Devil's (Russia's) only friend" (as Russia had beaten us to manned orbital flight. >>
• Fans still make the occasional pilgrimage to the spot of the plane crash that inspired this song. See the memorial at the site in Song Images.
• The song starts in mono, and gradually goes to stereo over its eight-and-a-half minutes. This was done to represent going from the monaural era into the age of stereo.
• Contrary to local lore, McLean neither wrote "American Pie" on cocktail napkins at the Tin and Lint in Saratoga Springs, New York, nor debuted it on stage at Caffe Lena, a famous coffeehouse around the corner from the bar. Speaking to Saratoga newspaper The Post-Star in November 2011, McLean disclosed that he penned the song in Philadelphia and performed it for the first time at Temple University, where he was billed to perform with Laura Nyro. "I have heard this for years. I guess you can't really control these things, but these are both not true. That is from the horse's mouth that's exactly what happened," McLean said. "Unfortunately Caffe Lena or Saratoga Springs - neither of those places can lay claim to anything with regard to 'American Pie.'"
• This song was a forebear to the '50s nostalgia the became popular later in the decade. A year after it was released, Elton John scored a '50s-themed hit with "Crocodile Rock; in 1973 the George Lucas movie American Graffiti harkened back to that decade, and in 1978 the movie The Buddy Holly Story hit theaters.
• One of the more bizarre covers of this song came in 1972, when it appeared on the album Meet The Brady Bunch, performed by the cast of the TV show. This version runs just 3:39.
• This song appears in the films Born on the Fourth of July (1989), Celebrity (1998) and Josie and the Pussycats (2001).
• Don McLean's original manuscript of "American Pie" was sold for $1.2 million at a Christie's New York auction on April 7, 2015. McLean wrote for the catalog description:
  
  "Basically in 'American Pie' things are heading in the wrong direction… It is becoming less idyllic. I don't know whether you consider that wrong or right but it is a morality song in a sense. I was around in 1970 and now I am around in 2015… there is no poetry and very little romance in anything anymore, so it is really like the last phase of 'American Pie'."

• More songs from Don McLean
• More songs thought to be too long to get radio play
• More songs that were hits for more than one artist
• More songs about specific musicians
• More songs that are also the names of movies
• More songs that mention other musicians in the lyrics
• More songs with food in the title
• More Fourth of July songs

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Comments: 297

A wonderful song by a true musical poet. I felt that it maybe needed a little updating and so have written a new set of lyrics a little more relevant to Norfolk England :)

West Norfolk Pie

A long long time ago, I can still remember
Fruit and veg could really make me smile
For fancy foods I had no use
I'd give the people fresh produce
And maybe they'd be happy for a while
But February made me shiver
With every parsnip I'd deliver
Bad news on the doorstep
I couldn't take one more step
I can't remember If I cried
The day my plough-horse stepped aside
But something touched me deep inside
The day that farming died
So it's …

Bye bye Miss West Norfolk pie
Rode my bike to the dyke but the dyke was dry
And them good old boys were eating puddings and pies
Singing this'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die

Did you learn to sow your seeds
And deal with all those pesky weeds
Like the farmers' handbook tells you so?
With sex and drugs and sausage rolls
Can farming save your mortal soul
And can you teach me how to plough real slow?
Well I know that you're in love with him
Cause I saw you dancing in King's Lynn
You both kicked off your shoes
Went paddling in the Ouse
I was a lonely teenage Norfolk buck
Who'd swapped his horse for a pick-up truck
But I knew that I was out of luck
The day that farming died
I started singing …

Now the years have past and we're on our own
Our farming friends have all gone home
And that's not how it used to be
How can a farmer pick his beans
Without those eastern Europeans?
It seems they have a use for you and me
The farmers were in great despair
And threw their hands up in the air
We lent a helping hand
By working on the land
They say that sugar beet's no good to eat
But cook it well it's really sweet
For good old boys it's quite a treat
The day that farming died
And they were singing …

Helter-skelter in a summer swelter
From the scorching sun there is no shelter
Crops once high were failing fast
And landing foul on the grass
And in the shops it came to pass
No calabrese and no sparrow-grass
The rapeseed gave a sweet perfume
We thought no more of tales of doom
And all got up to dance
But we never got the chance
Cause everybody on the field
knew that this was a disastrous yield
A hungry future was revealed
The day that farming died
We started singing …

And there we were all in one place
With no crops left just open space
With no time left to sow again
So come on Jack be nimble Jack be quick
Satan's got your celery stick
Cause hunger is the devil's only friend
And as I watched him burning sage
My hands were clenched in fists of rage
No person was more hell-bent
In Terrington St Clement
And as the flames grew high into the night
To light the sacrificial rite
The old boys said, “It just hint roight”
The day that farming died
And we were singing …

The people wanted something tasty
And soon they all were eating pastry
That's not a healthy diet so they say
I went down to the tractor store
Where I'd bought my Fergie years before
But the man there said, “That tractor's had its day”
And the hungry people all said, “Let's go
We'll go and buy our grub at Tesco”
But from Hunstanton to Walsoken
The fridges all were broken
And the three men I admire the most
The Father Son and Holy Ghost
They drove their tractors to the coast
The day that farming died
And they were singing …