The CONTRARIWISE reading and celebration–at Word Up Community Bookshop in Washington Heights, NYC–is just over two weeks away! CONTRARIWISE is my students’ philosophy journal; on May 18, from 3 to 5 p.m., we are celebrating the release of the inaugural issue. There will be readings, signings, refreshments, and philosophical surprises. In addition, the journal has a song! I wrote the lyrics and will sing the verse. The audience–or as many as are game–will come in for the chorus.
It is to be sung to the tune of the Major General’s Song from The Pirates of Penzance. If you plan to come to the event, you may want to practice the chorus in advance. Here it is:
This is the very model of a journal of philosophy.
There’s room in it for football chants and hints of anthroposophy.
It teems with letters, poems, essays, dialogues, and hidden jokes,
traversing space and time just like a spaceship full of giddy folks.
It has a piece on lying, in particular Pinocchio;
it’s very very humble with a bit of braggadocio.
There’s even Folly writing to the wailing man who lost his nose…
Lost his nose? … lost his nose? .. Got it!
and visions of utopia where nobody gets frosty toes!
Chorus: and visions of utopia where nobody gets frosty toes (3x)
It shows a lot of deference when poking fun at Socrates,
and when discussing medicine it calls upon Hippocrates.
In short I can hypothesize, with certainty, that possibly
this is the very model of a journal of philosophy!
Chorus: In short we can hypothesize, with certainty, that possibly
this is the very model of a journal of philosophy!
Note: The drawing is from the program of the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company’s children’s production of The Pirates of Penzance, 1884.
Take Away the Takeaway 
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