Why does "the cheese stand alone"?

Qadgop the Mercotan · #1 06-27-2006, 10:17 PM

Remember the "Farmer in the Dell" song? It ends with the line "the cheese stands alone".

Can anybody tell me what that means? What is the derivation?

I'm going back to the pool now, that's why I can't research it myself. I've one vacation day left, and I don't intend to spend much of it online.

Thanks!

Snooooopy · #2 06-27-2006, 10:18 PM

It's stinky cheese?

silenus · #3 06-27-2006, 10:20 PM

It's a good Stilton, aged to perfection.

Hey, Qad! Post the pictures your lovely wife took over on the pictures thread in MPSIMS. Dinner next time is on me. I insist.

Rhiannon8404 · #4 06-27-2006, 10:21 PM

Perhaps it's really good quality cheese and needs no accompaniment. Or perhaps it just stands alone...waiting for the right wine to come along.

Qadgop the Mercotan · #5 06-27-2006, 10:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by silenus

It's a good Stilton, aged to perfection.

Hey, Qad! Post the pictures your lovely wife took over on the pictures thread in MPSIMS. Dinner next time is on me. I insist.

I can't download until I get home!

Had a great time with you.

We forgot to discuss Pratchett, tho! Now there must be a next time!

Snooooopy · #6 06-27-2006, 10:30 PM

We also have to consider that the cheese may have been moved there.

The question is ... WHO moved it?

Zebra · #7 06-27-2006, 10:33 PM

Because Frank Miller is coming in on the noon train.

The King of Soup · #8 06-27-2006, 10:55 PM

Why does the cheese stand alone?

1) Because that's just its whey.

2) Because "The Farmer in the Dell" is not just a song but a dance. At the beginning, one child, the "farmer," stands in the center of a circle, and the other children sing and dance around him/her. On the first verse, s/he choses a spouse, and that child leaves the circle to join the farmer at the center. The spouse takes a child on the next verse; on the next the child picks a nurse; shortly after that it's a barnyard menagerie that lasts long enough to pack the rest of the kids into the center, with the proviso that the last four characters "taken" are the dog, cat, rat, and cheese. The cheese, having no one left to "take," stands alone, and gets to be the farmer on the next go-round.

Tuckerfan · #9 06-28-2006, 09:51 AM

[Cheese] I like chocolate milk! [/Cheese]

bauble · #10 06-28-2006, 09:59 AM

Because cheese is a wedge of spite?

ArrMatey! · #11 06-28-2006, 10:31 AM

Because it sits... And waits... And... Plans.

Soon, my pretties, soon... You will behold the TRUE power of cheese!

Slithy Tove · #12 06-28-2006, 10:37 AM

When they play this at the really smart kids' preschool, the cheese takes ambient bacteria from the atmosphere.

don't ask · #13 06-28-2006, 10:39 AM

Because according to phrase finder you damn Yankees corrupted it.

Elendil's Heir · #14 06-28-2006, 10:40 AM

Even Venezuelan Beaver Cheese enjoys solitude now and then.

Ludovic · #15 06-28-2006, 10:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ArrMatey!

Because it sits... And waits... And... Plans.

Soon, my pretties, soon... You will behold the TRUE power of cheese!

And don't get me started on Operation The Cheese Stands Alone, the secret government program to give away cheese to the needy....

Zsofia · #16 06-28-2006, 01:12 PM

When I was a kid there was a lively argument over whether the cheese stands alone or the cheese picks the ketchup and the ketchup stands alone. I like cheese, and I like ketchup, but I don't want any intermingling of the two.

gigi · #17 06-28-2006, 04:21 PM

It's Stinking Bishop and the song is a historical instance of Catholic-bashing?

susan · #18 06-28-2006, 04:27 PM

Are we assuming that it's a problem for the cheese to stand alone? Perhaps the cheese prefers to be unpartnered.

Bryan Ekers · #19 06-28-2006, 04:47 PM

It's waiting for someone to take it to sickbay.

zagloba · #20 06-28-2006, 04:55 PM

From fear that someone might cut it.

Loopydude · #21 06-28-2006, 05:32 PM

When I'm Bleu I feel like being alone sometimes.

Johnny Ecks · #22 06-28-2006, 05:56 PM

Because, sometime, a cheese just has to stand up for what's right- regardless of the consequences.

Chronos · #23 06-28-2006, 05:59 PM

The song's got to end somehow, and it has to be something that holds to the same meter as "the rat takes the cheese" (or "the farmer takes a wife", or any of the other iterations).

OpalCat · #24 06-28-2006, 09:38 PM

Well you know what it's like when someone cuts the cheese... would you want to stand next to that?

duffer · #25 06-28-2006, 09:42 PM

It stands alone as the Packer's have won more titles than any other NFL team in history.

Oh, wait, that's Cheeseheads. Sorry.

Best guess? Limburger cheese. Probably the first to be packaged as it couldn't stand to be not seperated from itself.

LorieSmurf · #26 06-28-2006, 09:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ludovic

And don't get me started on Operation The Cheese Stands Alone, the secret government program to give away cheese to the needy....

Mmmm....government cheese...<drool>

When I was a kid, my grandparents got government cheese. I have fond memories of it for some reason.

Elendil's Heir · #27 06-28-2006, 11:48 PM

We got government cheese at the Boy Scout camp where I worked for five summers. And Twix bars by the boxcar-load, for some reason....

Northern Piper · #28 06-29-2006, 12:59 AM

Because same-cheese marriage has not yet been allowed by activist courts.

Malacandra · #29 06-29-2006, 04:39 AM

So that's why there was that silly MtG card...

Dunderman · #30 06-29-2006, 06:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Malacandra

So that's why there was that silly MtG card...

Which was exactly what I thought of too, but I couldn't work "the meat has frequent visitors" into a witty reply.

Shirley Ujest · #31 06-29-2006, 07:47 AM

Maybe the cheese wasn't a gouda dancer.

gigi · #32 06-29-2006, 08:11 AM

He was afraid someone would Edam.

Malacandra · #33 06-29-2006, 08:57 AM

No, he was Emmenthal cheese, and everyone was sick of his holier-than-thou attitude.

Chefguy · #34 06-29-2006, 09:52 AM

Because while it pretended to be nice, it was really a predatory muenster.

gigi · #35 06-29-2006, 10:19 AM

Everyone else scurried after they heard him say, "Leave me alone or I'll spray you with pepper, Jack".

NoCoolUserName · #36 06-29-2006, 10:23 AM

When we sing it here at home, my little girls stand and raise a fist for the last verse--it's some sort of Cheese Power thing.

Elendil's Heir · #37 06-29-2006, 10:34 AM

If it was Swiss cheese, it was probably neutral on the whole standing-alone thing....

Ponder Stibbons · #38 06-29-2006, 10:43 AM

Poor cheese was feta'd to stand alone.

Saltire · #39 06-29-2006, 01:06 PM

"I wear the cheese. It does not wear me."

mrklutz · #40 06-29-2006, 01:28 PM

If you have any friends who are lactose intolerant, you know quite well why the cheese stands alone.

Loopydude · #41 06-29-2006, 02:23 PM

The others are apostates, and do not believe in cheeses.

gigi · #42 06-29-2006, 02:31 PM

Have you ever seen a cheese whiz? Leave wide berth.

zamboniracer · #43 06-29-2006, 04:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gigi

Have you ever seen a cheese whiz? Leave wide berth.

Sir or Madam, there is no such thing as "cheese whiz." There is, of course, "Cheez Whiz", which has only a vague relationship to real cheese and which is a registered trademark of kraftfoods whose lawyers will be contacting you shortly.