Nah, “trees grow” does not rhyme with “Negro”, even when I squint my eyes real hard.
Rhyme? I said it scans. Two syllables, two syllables.
Out of curiosity, did any Dopers go to Atlanta Pride this weekend? I’m curious if Helms’ death was mentioned (not that I’d expect most of the people who participate in Atlanta Pride to know who in the hell he was unless it’s changed radically since I last participated).
Scansion is more than matching the number of syllables. In the words in question, the emPHASIS is on the wrong syl-LABLES. Sounds awkward = doesn’t scan.
I didn’t intend to begin a poetic pit thread here, but it does rhyme in Arkansas. I’ll check with Mrs. Plant, a former resisdent of the fair state of New Hampshire.
I still haven’t gotten over that pen/pin thing.
We gather to mourn Jesse Helms,
The meanest sumbitch in the realms.
Once quite the elephant,
he ended irrelevant:
his legacy sure underwhelms.
(What, you can do better? Absent “Chinese elms,” I took all the rhymes!)
Daniel
Helms: Deep in the Mordoran pits
Of liberal opprobrium sits;
He played on base fears
And used racist smears
Till death took him into its mitts.
*By *the *God *who *makes *the *trees *grow
*I *hope Sa-tan is a Ne-gro.
Scans fine. Nice sentiment, too.
Mother always said speak good of the dead.
Jesse Helms is dead. Good.
Gays celebrate pride.
Black man runs for president.
Jesse Helms is dead.
I have been persuaded that no matter how much you revile a politician, it’s in very bad taste at best to “dance on his grave” or whatever other virtual mockery one might come up with.
So I repent of my participation in this thread. It was inappropriate.
I will not inappropriately celebrate the death of someone I dislike.
Writing it down now, 100 times.
On the WFMY Greensboro, NC, channel tonight, the news was respecting of Helms as a NC politician, but not overly hailing him. And, they assigned a young Af-American woman reporter to that story. Pretty subdued.
I thought that remarkable, as Greensboro has always been pretty sensitive to racial issues, because of the Greensboro Woolworth Sit Ins, which gave Senator Helms such a fit. The news team there is very integrated, with main anchor,Sandra Hughesbeing a long time anchor there…
I don’t know what WRAL, Jesse’s station, said, but at least my quarter of the state gave him due, but not intense accolades. Time , and old ideas, are passing. That’s the way it should be,
Apologies if this has been mentioned before – I’ve not looked through the entire thread – but there’s a good “farewell” to Helms here. Entitled “Farewell to a Provincial Redneck.”
In Salon, James Hannaham musters all the praise he can for Helms:
Madeline Albricht (sp) liked him. But then she danced with that little North Korean leader too.
Gee… just think that she could be part of Obama’s admin. Scary, huh?
Hunter S. Thompson like Pat Buchanan. Amazing how some of these people can be really personable in person.
I gotta ask for a cite on that. 
His own writing. I cannot recall the exact book or essay, but he definitely wrote how well he and Pat Buchanan hit it off when he went to interview him. I’m sure others will remember reading that, too.
I heard Larry King once say he was sure that if Thompson and Rush Limbaugh found themselves sitting next to each other on a cross-country flight, they would find they had much in common, such as gun-ownership rights. Said rather than representing far ends of a spectrum, the Far Left and the Far Right often met each other coming around the corner.
Ah, here I see in Buchanan’s Wikipedia entry: “Hunter S. Thompson considered Buchanan a friend. Buchanan was among dozens who offered a statement in Rolling Stone after the journalist’s suicide in 2005. About Buchanan, Thompson once wrote, ‘We disagree so violently on almost everything that it’s a real pleasure to drink with him’.”
That part is obviously horse pucky. Thanks for the rest, I’ll check it out.
No, really, Thompson did like to drink with him. Apparently, Buchanan enjoys a tipple himself.