Here is a thing that some other people are doing, in which one takes the first sentence of the first post of every month from one’s blog and puts them in one handy-dandy post. Some of my first posts were poems or articles or other things that I didn’t actually write. I’ve skipped those. (Click on the month to see the whole month.)

January: “We finally got to see ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ this week.” (What an exciting start.)

February: “I’m trying to get back to trying out one new recipe each week.” (Ha ha! That didn’t happen.)

March: “Grandpa Rick came to see Poppy for a few days.” (He’s going by “Papa” these days.)

April: “Laini and Megg have started a new weekly challenge called Sunday Scribblings with the intention of providing ‘inspiration and motivation for anyone who enjoys writing and would like a weekly challenge.’ ” (I don’t remember when I stopped doing this. But I did stop.)

May: “I was so pleased to find a lot of time to read while we were vacationing.” (“The Known World,” “Cloud Atlas” and “March.”)

June: “David Caruso is an ‘actor’ in only the Affleckian sense: He gets paid to appear on screen.”

July: “I have to admit it: When I first saw what this week’s Sunday Scribblings prompt was, my immediate thought was of Two Peas in a Bucket, a Web site dedicated to scrapbooking.”

August: “My nephew Wilson climbed up on the couch with me yesterday evening and said, ‘Aunt Nikki, I love to cuddle with you. I wish you were my bear.’ ” (This one is my very favorite.)

September: “I wanted to say thank you to everyone who has been supportive of us recently.”

October: “Tonight I made Thai Shrimp Noodle Pouches and No-Bake Granola Bars from the October 2006 issue of ‘Everyday with Rachael Ray.’ “

November: “This site began as an assignment.”

December: “Rockford took me to see ‘Casino Royale’ tonight.”

….. the end …..

My father-in-law was trying to sing “Pop Goes the Weasel” to Poppy this afternoon, but he couldn’t remember the words. I tried to help him out:

‘Round and ’round the mulberry bush
The monkey chased the weasel.
The monkey stopped to pull up his sock.
Pop goes the weasel.

My mother-in-law very emphatically disagreed with my sock-wearing-monkey version. Here are her lyrics:

‘Round and ’round the cobbler’s bench
the monkey chased the weasel
Monkey thought ’twas all in fun
Pop goes the weasel

A penny for a spool of thread
A penny for a needle
That’s the way the money goes
Pop goes the weasel.

Tom, who started this whole debate, says it’s “A penny for a loaf of bread.” He added, in typical Tom fashion, “That was 18th Century. That’s what Ben Franklin paid. And charged. When he opened his own bakery.”

But the National Institutes of Health — and I’m so glad they’re weighing in on the issue — agree with Genia:

Round and round the cobbler’s bench
The monkey chased the weasel,
The monkey thought ’twas all in fun
Pop! Goes the weasel.

A penny for a spool of thread
A penny for a needle,
That’s the way the money goes,
Pop! Goes the weasel.

A half a pound of tupenny rice,
A half a pound of treacle.
Mix it up and make it nice,
Pop! Goes the weasel.

Up and down the London road,
In and out of the Eagle,
That’s the way the money goes,
Pop! Goes the weasel.

I’ve no time to plead and pine,
I’ve no time to wheedle,
Kiss me quick and then I’m gone
Pop! Goes the weasel.

So it appears that I was wrong. At least, as far as THE MAN is concerned. And, it seems, as far as Wikipedia is concerned. I can’t find any reference to the monkey and his droopy sock or to Ben Franklin’s bakery. The Wikipedia entry does have several other alternate lyrics listed, though. Here’s my favorite:

Ev’ry night, when I come home,
The monkey’s on the table.
I take a stick and knock him off,
Pop! goes the weasel.

I’m sure I didn’t make up the sock monkey lyrics. Someone out there must know where it came from. How do you sing “Pop Goes the Weasel”?