Was Humpty Dumpty Really an Egg?

Last night while sitting in the darkness during Earth Hour 2011, I suddenly remembered a segment on Sesame Street that I saw as a child (see bottom).  It featured Kermit the Frog as a newsman and he was reporting Humpty Dumpty's fall and the efforts of the king's men and horses to put him back together.

Then it struck me.  Why is it that illustrations accompanying the nursery rhyme show Humpty Dumpty as  an egg?  My first step was to check the rhyme and see what it says about Humpty Dumpty.  It goes

from picturebook.com

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

All the king's horses and all the king's men

Couldn't put Humpty together again.

 No where in the rhyme can we find that Humpty Dumpty was an egg.  One can only deduce that he was one because all the king's men and horses could not put him back together after he fell from the wall.  Therefore he was fragile and easily broken.  What could be more fragile than an egg?

Since I couldn't stop wondering what Humpty Dumpty really was, I tried to do some research online. (As an aside, I find it really strange to do this after telling you not to believe everything that is on the Internet.)

I found several theories being put forward as to what Humpty Dumpty really was.  One of these is that "Humpty Dumpty" was an old English slang for an obese person or a clumsy person who is prone to falling down.  Another theory said that the rhyme started out as a riddle in the the early 1800s.  Over time, everyone got the answer correctly (an egg) and the riddle was not asked anymore but became a popular children's rhyme.  

I also came upon a site which says that Humpty Dumpty was actually a powerful cannon used to defend a walled city called Colchester.  The cannon was placed on a wall adjacent to St. Mary's Church.  When the city was laid to siege, the wall was destroyed by a mortar and sent Humpty Dumpty falling to the ground.  The cannon broke into pieces and all the king's men (infantry) and horses (cavalry) tried to fix it in vain.  

The most famous depiction of Humpty Dumpty was an illustration in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass.  The picture, drawn by John Tenniel in 1871, shows Alice meeting Humpty Dumpty for the first time.  In the story, Alice found Humpty Dumpty sitting on a wall with his legs crossed.  The girl wondered how the egg could keep his balance. Humpty Dumpty engaged Alice in a conversation about words and their meanings which left the girl more confused than enlightened.

In the Sesame Street segment, Humpty Dumpty was put together again.  An overjoyed Kermit the Frog gave him a rather strong pat on the back that sent him falling off the wall again.  The king's men and horses went back to work on fixing him, blaming the frog for the unfortunate incident.

So was Humpty Dumpty an egg, a cannon or a clumsy obese man?  Let's see what he has to say about it. In Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking Glass", when Alice asked him what his name means, the cranky egg replied :

`My name means the shape I am -- and a good handsome shape it is, too. With a name like your, you might be any shape, almost.' 

Equally baffling is why an egg would want to sit on a wall.  That is, however, another good topic for discussion later.

Here's the video of the Sesame Street segment:

American Idol Season 9 Top 12: What were they thinking?!?

After the performances of the remaining 16 finalists, the top 12 American Idol hopefuls were revealed tonight and I guess I am not the only one who was shocked at the results.  Two of the better singers were dumped by the American voting public in favor of those who performed below par in the last two days.

Alex Lambert and Lilly Scott, are now out of the running.  What a tragedy,  Alex has one of the most unique voices in this year's competition.  He was just starting to show what he could offer but sadly, he won't be able to show more of what he's got.  Lilly is one of my favorites since Hollywood week.  I wanted her to be in this competition because of her Indie sounding style.  I guess that's what spelled her doom because the show does not attract the Indie music crowd.

But even more shocking was the fact that instead of these two performers making it to the top 12, two of the weakest ones got in.  Tim Urban, the replacement finalist who had to reshoot his reaction shot as a one of the top 24 guys will come back next week, and Paige Miles, whom Simon boldly predicted to leave tonight, miraculously survived.  Paige Miles! Believe it or not, after what she did to Charlie Chaplin's "Smile" and after making all judges simultaneously frown at her performance made it to the top 12.

 The guys behind votefortheworst.com are jumping in joy right now and congratulating themselves after their two picks made it.  They just couldn't believe their luck over their double victory.

If this would be the trend this season I can't blame those naysayers when they say that the Idol franchise has reached its breaking point.  The only bright spots I am seeing this season are Crystal Bowersox and Siobhan Magnus for the girls, and Casey James and Big Mike Lynche for the boys.  I can't even remember the name of the others who would soon be eliminated starting next week. Oh yes, there's Andrew Garcia, but he's become boring singing all those songs.  He's now even in the reserve list of votefortheworst.com.

To be fair to everybody I got from the official americanidol.com site the name of  the rest of the top 12.  They are Aaron Kelly, Didi Benami, Katie Stevens, Lacey Brown, and Lee Dewyze.  Next week the lucky dozen will be doing songs from the Rolling Stones.  Let's see whose head will be the first to roll...

American Idol Season 9 Top 24

After screening thousands of young hopefuls, and sending home hundreds more during Hollywood week, the judges announced tonight the top 24 contestants for American Idol Season 9.  There were surprises, especially that one of those I expected to be in was not selected.

I am glad that the two men I am impressed with (Casey James and Andrew Garcia), as well as three girls I would want to vote for if I were allowed (Llli Scott, Haeley Vaughan and Siobhan Magnus) all made it to the top 24.  Of course Big Mike Lynche was also shortlisted though I came to know him more because of the birth of his baby on Group Day.

As usual, there were several contestants in this list who did not get good exposures during the winnowing process.  I hope their talents would help them remain in competition.  I really can't say much about John Park, Crystal Bowersox and Ashley Rodriguez because I don't remember seeing their performances during the auditions and the Hollywood week.  Perhaps because they were barely given airtime during the long elimination process.  Hopefully their lack of TV exposure won't harm them and make them exit the competition earlier than the rest of the 24.

Let's see how everybody would perform and how they would impress America.  It's ladies first again as the girls perform this coming Wednesday (Tuesday in the U.S.).  The boys follow suit on Thursday and we'd know who the first two contestants to leave on Friday,

Coming Soon: 3D TV

While High Definition TV (HDTV) has not even taken root in the Philippines, guess what those people behind TV technology are thinking of. Yes, a 3D TV!

In fact just this morning (Sunday afternoon and evening in other places) two events were beamed in 3D.  One was a football match between Manchester United and Arsenal in the United Kingdom (which was won by ManUtd by the way 3-1).  The other was the tribute to Michael Jackson segment of the 52nd Grammy Awards show which featured a 3D music video of MJ's "Earth Song".

The football match in UK was broadcast in specially equipped pubs but reports indicate that a 3D channel will soon be launched in the UK.  According to online reports, those lucky enough to watch the broadcast thought that the technology has a future in sports broadcasting, however it will take a little getting used to.  Some of the audience also noted that pubs should be more lenient with their customers who may leave their stores still wearing their 3D glasses.

Meanwhile, I wasn't able to get the full 3D experience of the Michael Jackson tribute because what was broadcast here was more of the performance of the artists who joined the singing of the Earth Song.  Reportedly, Target department store distributed 3D glasses weeks before the broadcast.  In fact some members of the audience were shown in  red and blue carton glasses used in the early days of 3D movies.

Speaking of movies, I must say that the 3D technology in movies are far ahead than that of TV. The movie AVATAR for example was an awesome experience.  I am afraid that I am getting addicted to those 3D movies because just last week I watched "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" and now I am planning to watch Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" in 3D.

Back to our original topic, 3D TV, I don't have the technical knowledge about how this technology works but  it looks promising.  I personally think that  we might be needing bigger TVs to fully appreciate the technology.  Aside from that, we should all get used to watching TV wearing what look like dark sunglasses even at night.