Emily's Poem

Our friend Emily Green, food writer for the Los Angeles Times, sent us this poem, a cautionary note which strikes just the right tone regarding our ridiculous excesses about sterile conditions when it comes to food.

A very charming elderly scientist, a Nobel laureate named Joshua Lederberg, sent this to me, writes Emily. He remembers it from his childhood in the 1920s. Thought it might amuse you:

A poem by Arthur Guiterman (USA, 1871 Nov 20 - 1943 Jan 11)

The Bunny and The Baby and The Prophylactic Pup

The Antiseptic Baby and the Prophylactic Pup
Were playing in the garden when the Bunny gambolled up;
They looked upon the creature with a loathing undisguised;
It wasn't disinfected and it wasn't sterilised.

They said it was microbic and a hotbed of disease;
They steamed it in a vapor of a thousand-odd degrees;
They froze it in a freezer that was cold as banished hope
And washed it in permanganate with carbolated soap.

In sulphurated hydrogen they steeped its wiggly ears;
They trimmed its frisky whiskers with a pair of hard-boiled shears;
They donned their rubber mittens and they took it by the hand
And 'lected it a member of the Fumigated Band.

There's not a micrococcus in the garden where they play;
They bathe in pure iodoform a dozen times a day;
And each imbibes his rations from a hygienic cup
The Bunny and The Baby and The Prophylactic Pup.

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text © John & Sally McKenna
illustrations © Ken Buggy