Wednesday, February 06, 2008

"You know how to whistle, don't you? Just put your lips together and blow."

That line from Casa Blanca "some" movie..read the comments, it was mentioned there" :-D was one of Lauren Bacall's...most famous lines ever. The thought of whistling, to me, evokes images of Gene Kelly dancing through the street in the rain just a'whistling his ole' heart out. Or...Bing Crosby...now, that man....was a whistler. Does anyone remember the singer and "musical whistler", Roger Whittaker?? (Stop and take a minute and think about that one....we got his album off TV...wonder what happened to him??) Even when I hear someone (like a nephew, for example!) whistling the tune to The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, I can't help but smile.

Those...are all....good whistles. Which means that there are also bad whistles....whistles that are so annoying, it's hard to ignore the sound that is piercing your eardrums!!

My brother was...still is...one of those whistlers. Oh...don't get me wrong...he whistles beautifully. If only....he would...whistle...something...we...could...recognize!! Nine times out of ten he's just whistling...no tune...kind of like "interpretative whistling", so to speak.

And now.....it has become a favorite thing to do......
of this little man....



Yes....he is cute...sombrero and all (he says he's a cowboy...I don't have the heart to tell him that he might possibly be wrong...just a little!!!)....but the "whatever" he keeps annoying entertaining us with is about to make us...mainly me!...crazy!!!
I actually offered him 100 yen (about a dollar!!) to stop for awhile..at least while we were having dinner!!! (he took the money and did stop...but of course, it's hard to eat AND whistle at the same time!!).

Yes....I'm trying to be accommodating of his creativity...he's got some good little "songs" going. Yes....I want him to have no fear to do things, no matter how small and despite others' opinions...

But....short of keeping the earphones to my MP3 in my ears at all times (especially in the car as that is when he really gets to trilling)...I'm not sure what to do. I guess that my ability to gaman (Japanese for "putting up with something") will be put to the test!!!

Aaaaahhhh...just another day in the "Life and times of a 5-year-old".



9 comments:

ElPato said...

I think the proper term for a cowboy with a sombrero would be vaquero! Cute kid!

Gina said...

He is adorable and I have absolutely no advice for dealing with the whistling. I have a whistler too and I'm always telling him to go whistle outside!

dkuroiwa said...

Oh this'll be good...my little vaquero...outside...the neightbors will really think we're crazy now!! What fun!!

katydidnot said...

he's a vaquero, not a cowboy. i have a brother in law (read: grown up) who whistles interpretively, and um...also...sings interpretively. oh dear god, it's awful.

Suburban Correspondent said...

Hey - my 5-year-old girl can whistle also - we should get them together.

Casablanca starred Henry Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. You are thinking of another movie, probably "The Big Sleep."

dkuroiwa said...

Well...holy moly!! Don't you just love it when your mind is thinking one thing (Ingrid Bergman) and your fingers type another (Lauren Bacall).
Thanks so much for pointing out my error!!!
For a woman with many more children than I, you are strangely more alert...how DO you do it?!?!?! :-D

Susan C. said...

O.k I have to admit I'm a whistler, actually my whole family is(except Bill whose not really musical at all). But I'm not as cute in my sombrero as Koji. By the way I have Roger's CD. We listen to it when we're having a quiett dinner.

Anonymous said...

Ok, here are my 2 cents (i guess I should say 2 yen)... From To Have and Have Not (1944): "You know you don't have to act with me, Steve. You don't have to say anything and you don't have to do anything. Not a thing. Oh, maybe just whistle. You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together and blow."

dkuroiwa said...

Thank you Miss N.("ladycheetah") and I am just wondering...did you get this from the Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB) or are just some kind of cinematic freak of nature?!?!?!
If it's "no" to the first and "yeah, okay" to the second...you need to watch a movie or two with my friend Dena and I, 'cause it gets pretty old with just the two of us remembering lines from movies!!!