[knotty panda]

As you well know, I have no life. I should be listening to the radio on my evening drive home -- but NOOOOO! I have to be listening to the voices in my head, who are "Happy as a Clam!"

Overanalyzing, as I am prone to do, I couldn't wait to get home to discover just where that saying originated. How does one know when a clam is happy? Do they giggle like little girl clams? Are they cognizant of things like steamers? Well!

Following is an explanation of the saying and a Clam Sonnet.

"The saying is very definitely American, hardly known elsewhere. The fact is, we’ve lost its second half, which makes everything clear. The full expression is happy as a clam at high tide or happy as a clam at high water. Clam digging has to be done at low tide, when you stand a chance of finding them and extracting them. At high water, clams are comfortably covered in water and so able to feed, comparatively at ease and free of the risk that some hunter will rip them untimely from their sandy berths. I guess that’s a good enough definition of happy.

John G Saxe put it better, or at any rate more poetically, in his Sonnet to a Clam, in the late 1840s:

Inglorious friend! most confident I am
Thy life is one of very little ease;
Albeit men mock thee with their similes,
And prate of being “happy as a clam!”
What though thy shell protects thy fragile head
From the sharp bailiffs of the briny sea?
Thy valves are, sure, no safety-valves to thee,
While rakes are free to desecrate thy bed,
And bear thee off, — as foemen take their spoil,
Far from thy friends and family to roam;
Forced, like a Hessian, from thy native home,
To meet destruction in a foreign broil!
Though thou art tender, yet thy humble bard
Declares, 0 clam! thy case is shocking hard!"

I'm not so happy as a clam now. The poor little dears.

[pattye]

HUMMMM--This reminded me about those beds of darling little blue mussels that sing------but guess they really couldn't be considered clams. Sounds like clam chowder has been around for awhile!

Pattye
so many pearls, so little time

[Slraep]

Originally Posted by pattye

Sounds like clam chowder has been around for awhile!

Oh no, it's Silence of The Clams...

Slraep

[Slraep]

Clam

By Timothy Bovee
Born 1946

Just as happy as a clam.
Without a doubt, I am, I am.
It is a fact, to say the least,
Clam seems a very joyous beast.
You've never seen with your own eye
A maudlin clam break down and cry,
For Clam Law says when Clam is down
Clam must clam up and never frown.
A clam's mouth spreads immensely wide
From the eastern hinge to the western side.
But is it really a clammy grin
Or a gate that beckons, come all, come in?
The clammish life--it really sucks
For plankton doesn't come in trucks.
No clam can be a true aesthete;
Clam's deconstruction: Slurp and Eat.
If Clam would claim his real birthright
He'd live a life not quite so trite.
He'd burst out in a bubbly roar,
"I am a bloody carnivore!"
He eats them raw, although in truth,
Clamkind has not a single tooth
To a prideful clam comes a day surreal
When Clam becomes another's meal.
Though baked in sorrow, Clam wears a smile
That lingers for a longish while.
As does the clam, then so do I.
In shadows deep, I never sigh.
Without a doubt, I am, I am
Just as happy as a clam.

[GemGeek]

Originally Posted by Slraep

Oh no, it's Silence of The Clams...

Slraep

Only you, Slraep, only you!

[nlerner]

And, of course, Dorothy Parker:

There's little in taking or giving,
There's little in water or wine,
This living, this living, this living,
Was never a project of mine.
For hard is the work and sparse is,
The goal of the one at the top.
And art is only catharsis,
And love is a permanent flop,
And work is the province of cattle,
And rest's for a clam in a shell.
So I'm thinking of throwing the battle,
Would you kindly direct me to hell.

Remembered by Nora's Eli

[Pearl_dreams]

*
Clams Have Feelings Too
*
*
Birds are dumb cause small bird brain
But so are kids and old people
Some birds talk most other sing
I don’t see you eating a talking bird
Pigs smell bad they roll in pooh
But so do kids and elderly
I don’t see you chop off an old man’s feet
Put them in a mason jar and pickle them
No chowder for you, cause clams have feelings too
Actualy they don’t have central nervousness
No manhatten style, clams have the right to smile
Come to think about it they don’t have a face
They have no face, no place for ears
There’s no clam eyes to cry clam tears
No spinal cord, they must get bored
Might as well just put them out of misery
I don’t believe it’s selfish to eat defenseless shellfish
No chowder for you clams have feelings too
It could happen to you, clams have feelings too
I don’t think they do, clams have feelings too

source: http://www.poemhunter.com/song/clams-have-feelings-too/


Oh, brother, is that lame or what?!

[Pearl_dreams]

We can do better!
How about if we write some pearl haiku? Remember the pattern is 5 syllables in first and third lines and 7 syllables in second line. I'll start:


Homely clam with pearl
Juxtaposing hard and soft
Precious paradox


In my lowly shell
Hidden from the grasping world
Lustrous orb awaits

[nlerner]

OK

Clam-shell cellphone,
Will someone SMS to me
Radiant pearl


Eli again

[Pearl_dreams]

Cute! *picturing clam shell cell phone*

Remember, 5 syllables in first and third lines.

[jerin]

Hi all,

I do not know where "happy as a clam" comes from but I found this verse in the book "Oyster" and it pretty well describes all about it:

"To public men - and private men as well- the moral of the feast these verses tell: In spite of foes, which everywhere abound, the cool impassive oyster keeps his ground: Tenacious, firm, in temper unexcelled, his mouth kept shut, unless he is compelled, And then imparting only what he should, nor for his own, but for the public good, all sweet, agreeable, in perfect taste, With nought superfluous to vex - or waste; Unselfishly relinquishing his ease, His only object seems to please."

Source: Oyster bey Rebecca Stott.

P.S. After reading this I dout any clam or oyster could be happy - EVER!

[Ashley]

Pearls from a necklace
slipping off a severed string:
a sudden hail storm

By: Sonny Rainshine

It's not mine, but I like it quite a bit!

[Slraep]

Hamaguri stew
dioxins and more toxins
forget about it

Slraep

[Ashley]

Love it! That was funny

[Slraep]

Thanks Ashley, here's another:

Murugai, oh my
so rubbery is your taste
almost like a shoe


Slraep