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Dorothy King |
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Dorothy K. started her highly successful career as song lyricist by writing (or perhaps we should say re‑writing) some children's nursery rhymes so as to help her friends in middle school math class who were having trouble grasping the concept of percent. A few of her efforts along this line still survive and are published here for the first time (see below). We hope you will enjoy them and enhance your own knowledge of percents by working through them, but also that they will help you understand that Ms. K. had already developed a gift for poetry at this early age. Ms. K. is yet another veteran of the struggle for education which was immeasurably augmented by her taking the remarkable Creative Expressions class offered by the Legendary Mr. Christopherson. How could she, or anyone else for that matter, go astray with a fine start such as that? After her early successes with educational rhyming, she moved into the pop song field, and, there has been no stopping her since! Many of her wonderful lyrics have been put to song by the talented singer April M. who often belts them out across New York Harbor (see the April M. story). Many of her lyrics are so poetic in nature that they have been placed on busses and trolley cars all over the country, owing to the popular demand of a loving public. Most of Dorothy's lyrics tell the story of either love won, or love lost, and they do so in such a heart pulling way that one cannot resist them. Who among us will ever forget the first time we heard her "Puppy Love," which brings out the dog‑like characteristics buried in all of us, making us want to get down on all fours and just howl with understanding. The song tells the story of a hapless young dog that had to divide his attentions between a pretty little dachshund, and the corner fire hydrant. Another of Ms. K.'s most popular lyrics meaningfully conveys the heart rending efforts of a young ostrich trying to impress her friends by giving up her boy friend in order to protest, by sticking her head down a hole in the sand, the public’s lax attitude toward sexual self-control in her society. Sadly, the poor creature was soon buried in scandal after laying an egg during her protest. Yet another of Dorothy’s “All Heart” songs deals with the subject of getting along, despite our differences. It examines the plight of the young alien who crashes on Earth and is unable to find a young lady to love, since he is unwilling to give up the image of girls back home with five tentacles, three seven‑jointed legs, and nine suction‑pad mouths (allowing for some really memorable kissing, as first pointed out by the Legendary Mr. Christopherson, in attendance at the song’s first performance). We come to understand, after listening to this melancholy tune that love is sometimes lost for the most trivial of reasons. Well, enough said! Ms. Dorothy K.'s songs and lyrics speak for themselves. A few Dorothy K. math-rhymes: Peter Piper picked 200 pickled peppers; 200 pickled peppers Peter Piper picked. If Peter Piper ate 30% of the peppers he picked, On how many pickled peppers did Peter Piper get sick?
60 pound Humpty D. had a great fall, Splattered 90 % of himself over all The King's horses and on the Queen's dress. How much of Humpty D. made this great mess?
12 blind mice, 12 blind mice, See how they run, see how they run. They all ran after the farmer s wife, She chopped some in two with a carving knife, So that 50% of them lost their life. How many remained of the 12 blind mice?
Little Jack Horner sat in a corner Eating a 16 pound pie. He stuck in his thumb, And pulled out a plum, And said, "This is 25% of the pastry!" So show you're not dumb, What's the weight of that plum, That Little Jack found so tastry? |
