It's Kismet

Yes, kismet, as in fate - destined to be. This blog initially came about as a joke, but now I think it was kismet. One of my fellow stampers and a sometimes-customer joked one day how everything I do comes out crooked. I jokingly replied, "Yeah, I'll start a blog called The Crooked Stamper!" to which she replied, "I'd read it." And so it was.

Yesterday I was talking with #2 about my avatar, or lack thereof, and she thought I should look up The Crooked Man, as in the nursery rhyme, to see what I could find. So I did, and here's what I found. I read the article with much interest, and one of the similarities cannot be ignored:

"The crooked man is reputed to be the Scottish General Sir Alexander Leslie."

Leslie? LESLIE? As in my name?!?!?!

The article explains the lines of the rhyme and their meaning based on English/Scottish history. Go ahead - read it! It is fascinating, especially to me, a reader of historical fiction, and a lover of Scotland. Coincidence? I think not. Let's review:

There was a crooked man and he walked a crooked mile,
He found a crooked sixpence upon a crooked stile.
He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse.
And they all lived together in a little crooked house.

Oh, be still my heart. And if you do read the article, check out the illustration. Yep, that's me alright. Old, bent over - you know: crooked.

There was also a song by the Serendipity Singers (from the 1964 Philips 45: 40175), a recording of which I have included here for your entertainment and (for those of you of the older persuasion) nostalgia:




For you young-uns, that thing turning? That's a turn-table, and that thing spinning around on the turn-table is a 45. That's how we used to get our copies of recordings we liked - the single. A record. I have some of them (quite a few, actually), and I also have a turn-table. I just wanted you to know.

Okay, that's enough useless information for one day. Oh, yes, one more thing: That song is now stuck in my head. Yours, too? Good - my work here is done. Thanks for stopping by!