'Twas The Night Before Strato

[BDWard]

'Twas the night before Strato, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The lineups were made by the managers with care,
In the hope that HAL soon would be there;

The feelings were high after much had been said,
While visions of home runs danced in our heads;
As the screen glared brightly I put on my cap,
But drifted off to an uneasy nap,

And from the alarm clock there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to check out the matter.
And down the stairs I made a mad dash,
Turned on the browser and it moved with a flash.

The sun now awaken had begun to glow,
Giving the lustre of sunrise to objects below,
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But box scores for games and I had no more fear,

With Bernie in charge, so lively and quick,
I thought for a moment "this must be a trick".
More rapid than eagles his minions they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;

"Now, NEV! now, PETRO! now, SALTY and HACK!
DONFESQ and VISISK!, YE DOUBTERS, I’M BACK!
And to your computers just right down the hall!
You get your way! get your way! get your way all!"

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,
So into the website the minions they flew,
As eager young boys with Strato cards new.

And then, in a twinkling, they knew there was proof
The games they were running, it wasn’t a spoof.
And Bernie had finally turned it around,
Causing joy and happiness in great abound.

He was dressed in his pjs, from his head to his toe,
And his face was unshaven, but he made it a go.
A brand new game engine had nearly broken his back,
And all had visions of a free five pack!

And Hal’s eyes -- how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the stubble on his chin was as white as the snow;

He was kindly and friendly, his jolly old self,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;

We spoke not a word, but all missed work,
And had not a care; for the boss is a jerk,
And not being known to utter long prose,
While giving a nod, from his seat he arose;

He sprang to his feet, and he gave a little whistle,
And away he went, as if on a missile.
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
GOOD LUCK TO ALL, AND I’LL MAKE IT RIGHT!

[KEVINEHLE]

Wow BD, there was an astonishing (sort of disturbingly) large amount of work you put into your poem. Very nice! Hopefully you write for a living. Nice job!

Kev

[BDWard]

Kev: Not much work went into it, as it is based upon the classic poem "'Twas the Night Before Christmas". I tried to keep it as faithful to the original as possible and things just sort of flowed.

Waiting to see if the new game engine worked reminded me of being a kid again waiting for Christmas morning. I'm sure I wasn't alone in feeling that way. That gave me the idea to modify the poem.

The link to the original is below:

http://www.teachervision.fen.com/christmas/resource/4051.html

[tcochran]

The mouse is stirring again on the mousepad at this house. Congrats on a fine cover of a classic!

[artie4121]

This is wonderful work. Amazing.

But as for . . .

[quote:5b23f24988]Kev: Not much work went into it, as it is based upon the classic poem "'Twas the Night Before Christmas". I tried to keep it as faithful to the original as possible and things just sort of flowed[/quote:5b23f24988]

I wonder if there is ANYone here who doesn't know on what it was based.

Again, GREAT job. Scary mind you have .

Artie