Jabberwocky

Make sure you always, always, always brush your teeth!!

There is a version of Alice in Wonderland with the character called the Jabberwocky. In the movie you dont ever SEE the Jabberwocky, but oh boy when I was a kid could I imagine it!!! Big, smelly, fire breathing and scaly. Perhaps he could time/space travel, since at any point in time he could show up with his heart pounding theme music.

In fact my mom used it as a effective mechanism to get my brother and I to brush our teeth. Like most kids you see, we liked to procrastinate on brushing our teeth, because then you just know what happens after that- dun dun duuuun: bedtime.

So we would dilly dally, and drag our feet, whine, say we were hungry, you get the drift. So at some point mom came up with the brilliant idea to tell us that if we didnt go brush our teeth this very minute, THE JABBERWOCKY IS GONNA GET YOU! While stomping her feet and banging a spatula (which was a intimidating tool in our house all on its own) against anything for noisy dramatic effect.

We would beat feet down the slender hallway shoving each other out if the way to the sink so the Jabberwocky would not get you (at least before it got your little brother first!) Then sometimes we would stand there out of adrenaline, and just stare into our wide eyed reflections in the mirror.

Most of the time we did not even brush our teeth. We learned to turn the water on for the precise amount of time so mom would not send the Jabberwocky after us again. As a young teenager I realized if there was an actual Jabberwocky, he would have KNOWN we didnt brush our teeth sometimes.......and had we been good kiddos and brushed our teeth regularly the Jabberwocky could have stayed in the looking glass!

It got to the point where the theme music from that part of the movie would ooze into my head, causing me to have difficulty winding down for actual bedtime. I attribute my bed time reading habit (or more than mild obsession as one of my friends calls it) to the Jabberwocky. So here is the utterly inane yet overly analyzed 1871 poem by Lewis Carroll, The Jabberwocky:

“

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. "Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch!" He took his vorpal sword in hand: Long time the manxome foe he sought— So rested he by the Tumtum tree, And stood awhile in thought. And as in uffish thought he stood, The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, Came whiffling through the tulgey wood, And burbled as it came! One, two! One, two! and through and through The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! He left it dead, and with its head He went galumphing back. "And hast thou slain the Jabberwock? Come to my arms, my beamish boy! O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!" He chortled in his joy. 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. I Think Im gonna run along and brush my teeth.......I hope you will consider doing the same, teeth health is more important than many realize! Goodnight!

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