Some Little Bug (The Food Song)

These are the lines from “Some Little Bug” that Steve Buscemi recites as Nucky Thompson in “Home” (Episode 7 of Season 1) at the dinner table with Margaret and her children, Emily and Teddy.

“In these days of indigestion, it is often times a question
Of what to eat, and what to leave alone
Every microbe and bacillus has a different way to kill us
And in time they will claim us for their own.

“For there are germs of every kind in every food that you can find
In the market or upon the bill of fare
Drinking water’s just as risky as the so-called deadly whiskey
And its often a mistake to breathe the air.”

Although this is generally referred to as a 1915 song, it was around a lot longer. No one seems to know who wrote it, but it really does sound like something W. S. Gilbert would write if you have ever read his poetry. Here are some lines from Ballad: A Nightmare:

When you’re lying awake with a dismal headache,
and repose is taboo’d by anxiety,
I conceive you may use any language you choose
to indulge in without impropriety;
For your brain is on fire – the bedclothes conspire
of usual slumber to plunder you:
First your counterpane goes and uncovers your toes,
and your sheet slips demurely from under you;
Then the blanketing tickles – you feel like mixed pickles,
so terribly sharp is the pricking,
And you’re hot, and you’re cross, and you tumble and toss
till there’s nothing ‘twixt you and the ticking.

Read the whole poem here

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