Here's a new word... Chyron.
Or, it's an old word, and I've only just read it for the first time, and thought "That's a new word"... ha ha....
So, now you know that the annoying "Breaking News" banner that sits above the ticker tape, on the news, obscuring the part of the screen where people's names, or subtitles go, has a name...
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The tune's been there, in the back of my mind for years, a jumbled maze of half remembered words...
The song is called "The Ballad of Seth Davey", and is set on the River Mersey.
Right, where do we start... a dancing doll is a manikin about 18 inches high,
pivoted at the shoulders hip and knees. It is held by hand using a piece of
dowling about 18 inches long that is drilled into it's back. The performer half
sits on a thin plank of wood about 4 by 24 inch long, and places the doll on the
flexible end. He then drums the plank in time to the song he sings. This
causes the doll to jiggle up and down and the arms and legs to swivel round.
Done well, the doll really does dance.
Bevington is an area of Liverpool (England) a formerly thickly wooded area
between Bevington Hill and Everton Hill which at one time had a pub called
"The Bush" The Pavy is the Pavilion Theatre in New Brighton, again an area
of Liverpool.
The version of the song I know goes -
He sat on the corner of Bevington Bush
astride of an old packing case
and the dolls at the end of his plank went dancing
as he crooned with a smile of his face.
Chorus
Come day go day
wish in my heart for Sunday
drinking buttermilk all the week
Whisky on a Sunday
His tired old hands drummed a wooden beam
and the puppet dolls they danced the gear
a far better show than you ever did see
at the Pavy on New Brighton Pier
In 1905 old Seth Davy died,
his songs were heard no more
the three dancing dolls
in a jowler bin ended
and the plank went to mend
some back door
But on some stormy nights
down Scotty Road way
when the wind whistles up from the sea
you can still hear the sound of old Seth Davy
as he croons to his dancing dolls three...
And just to help with the visualisation -
Long story short, when I was making quadruped walking robots, I couldn't get the design right for the knees, so I turned to wooden, carved dolls for inspiration, and from that a whole new interest was spawned... ha ha...
I never did get the robots to work quite to my satisfaction, but I made one that could climb a flight of stairs, so I count that as a small victory, ha ha...
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