Eclectic Amateur

Children Get The Worst Media

… and this has apparently been happening for centuries.

I now (thanks to

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hspace=”3″ vspace=”3″> Hopscotch, Hangman, Hot Potato, and Ha, Ha, Ha:

A Rulebook of Children’s Games) have the decoding for that

children’s classic of whimsey and play, Ring Around the Rosey.

It is a memorial of the great Plague of London from 1665:

Ring a ring of roses

(early plague symptom: red splotches ringing the neck area)

A pocket full of posies

(Londoners carried herbs attempting to ward it off)

A tish-oo, a tish-oo

(late plague symptom: violent sneezing)

We all fall down

(guess those posies didn't help much)