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Hornheads!

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Just in time for your unique Halloween costume planning needs, two brand new dinosaurs have been introduced, and though they’ve been dead for millions of years, they’re just right for our times. Want to dress as one? Get a hat and pile it high with as many spiky protrusions as you can find and you’ll be close enough.

Utahceratops and Kosmoceratops are baroque boneheads with plenty of skull bling.
Each ancient cranium is full of enough distracting and extraneous ornamentation to qualify as a vocal solo on Glee! The purpose of all the skeletal action – to attract potential mates. It seems that some amorous dinos found their thrills in bony frills above the neck and shoulders.

Utahceratops and Kosmoceratops come from the same family of beasts that gave us our beloved Triceratops, a kid-favorite fossil “brand” that just merged with the relatively unknown but equally hornful Torosaurus.

credit: Ron Blakey, NAU Geology

But here’s the part that surprised me – they lived during the late Cretaceous period, an age when the western part of North America was separated from the east by a body of water named the Western Interior Seaway, or the Niobraran Sea, though of course no creature alive at the time called it that. I believe they dubbed it “GHRRRRROOOOOGHGGGGGGGG”.

What we think of as the Rocky Mountains today was a separate continent, which had no name at the time but is now called “Laramidia”. If climate change continues to melt the polar ice and sea levels rise high enough, our descendants could become the new Laramidians. No doubt they would need a fancy sounding anthem for this intensely vertical, suddenly prairie-less land.

Laramidia hail to thee!
Hail to thy great mountains high.
Hail to thy uplifted hills.
Hail to thy thin-layered sky.

From thy summits to the sea,
From thy peaks straight down to foam,
Thou art vertical indeed.
Laramidia, my home.

Thou has not a grain of wheat
Nor a field that’s ripe with corn.
Nothing flat, as you can see.
Only dinosaurs, with horns.

Laramidia, be strong.
Laramidia, be tall.
If thou walks abroad at night,
Laramidia, don’t fall.

Thou art nought but up and down.
Thy terrain do we extol.
When we tumble we make straight
Unto the waves. That’s how we roll.

Do you know the words to any national anthems other than the good ol’ USA’s?

84 thoughts on “Hornheads!”

  1. Rise and Storm Babooners:

    Dinosaurs are fascinating, aren’t they? Kinda sentimental for me, too. My son spent hours and hours of fantasy time (most of it out loud) on dinosaurs from ages 4-8 yrs. Lego dinosaurs, plastic dinosaurs, movie dinosaurs (Baby was the favorite), dinosaurs under my feet. I did not know that they had their own anthem though. The things I learn here! And I have been to Niobrara, Nebraska.

    Do I know any national anthem other than ours. No I do not. I still remember some of the “Iowa” song and that is it.

    Oh, we’re from Ioway, Ioway
    Best in all the land
    ________in every hand.
    Oh, we’re from Ioway, Ioway
    That’s where the tall corn grows.

    Off to the day and the gym!

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    1. Are you suggesting Iowa is a foreign land?
      I live here on the shores of the “Glaical River Warren.” I have foresworn poetry, but someone else can write a rhapsodic song about GRW. I have a friend who owns a home on the beach of Glacial Lake Aggassiz, right in the middle of the prairie. But he has always wanted to do something clever with that.

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    3. Jacque, I believe it’s:
      We are from Ioway, Ioway
      Joy on every hand,
      Best state in the land
      Oh, we’re from Ioway, Ioway
      That’s where the tall corn grows.

      And then if you were an expat to the West Coast, you could have:
      California here I come,
      right back where I started from (which of course wasn’t true and didn’t make sense).

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  2. excellent anthem, Dale! unfortunately, with my sieve-like mind, i only know the opening lines to anthems – even Minnesota Hail to Thee. i hadn’t thought of it before now, but i’d like an anthem for our farm, huh? why not? Cynthia in Mahtowa (yeah, where is she also, and Sherrilee??) knows “The Prayer of the Goat” which we could put to music. or could we get that throat-singer Finn to put it to music for us???
    have a rainy, cozy day All and hope you get to stay dry.

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    1. Moissing a few people on here; a better group with them. Did I read someone was going to try to contact sherrilee? I thought I had her email address but I don’t. cynthia is on fb with me.

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      3. I have her phone number tucked away somewhere, if I don’t hear anything in the next day or two I will escalate to the phone (with the rain, maybe I should walk the handful of blocks between her house and mine, if I can find the address again, and see if hers has slid into the creek).

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  3. I don’t even know the lyrics to my own country’s anthem except for the first stanza. Count me as one of those folks who fervently wish we could make “America the Beautiful” our anthem. It is a sweet song, lofty and almost liberal in sentiment. And it is singable, unlike the octave-and-a-half “Star Spangled Banner,” which is a militaristic British drinking song. Few people have the range to sing that thing properly, although if you are drunk enough you think you hit that high note.

    Barb in Blackhoof The best farming song ever written is probably Stan Rogers’ “Field Behind the Plow.” That song is pure poetry. I don’t recall any goat farming songs.

    What was Catherine’s word for fall? Cozy. Have a cozy day, Baboons.

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    1. Garrison figured it out, though, and points it out sometimes at the State Fair show. If you start Oh Say Can You See low enough, people can do it just fine. It is still a clunky song, to paraphrase Clyde, and I agree about America the Beautiful.

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    2. I’ve always had to laugh at that Stan Rogers song just a little. It’s very realistic. Especially the part where he “blows the dust cake from his nose…”

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  4. god morning good morning
    all you babooners
    we meet in the morning
    now without tuners

    we chat and we laugh
    and discuss events daily
    the land of baboon
    we romp and we playlee

    from morning til night
    you can just check back in
    and type with your fingers
    while your rubbing you chin

    oh baboon land baboon land
    my mothers milk home
    i sing of the blog site
    and no longer roam

    at six theres a new thought
    to digest and to noodle
    today its a dinosaur
    tomorrow a poodle

    and then dr heartland
    bubby and the rest
    we all think about it
    then blog with the best

    oh baboon land baboon land
    how i love the way
    your the blog of my heart
    and the heart of my day

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  5. I know the words to “O Canada”. I worked in a small public school in rural Manitoba for a few months when I was in grad school and we had to sing “O Canada” “God Save the Queen” and say the Lord’s prayer every morning.

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  6. “Oh, Canada, Oh Canada . . .” Are there words after that?
    I am always ashamed of how ignorant we pushy neighbors are of Canada; and here I cannot even come up with any more words of the Canadian National Anthem.

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    2. I only wish I knew all of Oh Canada and am determined to learn it. I did hear that there was a move afoot to remove the phrase “thy sons”, which Canadian sons and daughters put the kabosh on as silly and unnecessary. Good for them. The gender neutralizing of songs is a personal irritation, especially when it makes them more awkward to sing.

      I don’t know the words to the Marseilles (or apparently how to spell it), but cry every time they sing it in Casablanca.

      Whyfor the forswearing of poetry, oh bard of ‘Kato?

      Sherillee, where for art thou?

      Jacque, hear you on the dino nostalgia-and how is your identification of road construction equipment? We’ve now moved on to D&D monsters and all sorts of galactic phenomenon. I am no longer the reader, so can’t keep up.

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      1. Poetrey is the devil’s tool. You start with poetry and then you fo not the hard stuff, like biography, then fiction, and then texting.

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      6. tim, it’s chosen by your computer set up. I really do poetry and some entries in Word and then paste in. Just looking for an excuse other than this incredible headache from change of season and residuals from weekend.

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  7. I knew they were pretty simple lyrics. I knew them once:
    “O Canada!
    Our home and native land!
    True patriot love in all thy sons command.
    With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
    The True North strong and free!
    From far and wide,
    O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
    God keep our land glorious and free!
    O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
    O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.”
    A pretty rousing song all in all. Better than they clunky thing we sing.

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    1. One of the reasons I learned that song was the fact that my employment at the school wasn’t exactly approved by Immigration Canada and the school was only a few miles from the border and several of the children and teachers had family members who were employed at the border crossing and I had to pass as Canadian so I could avoid all “rannygazoo” with my visa status.

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      1. When HSA confiscated granny’s kazoo as part of their border crossing peek-a-boo rannygazoo, I was hacked, and frankly, gobsmacked.

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  8. “Allons enfants de la Patrie” (come children of the fatherland)
    is how the French one starts. I knew it for the 3 minutes that I was a French major, so I confess I just looked it up on Wikipedia…

    …but I like tim’s.

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  9. Mexicans, at the cry of war,
    prepare the steel and the steed,
    and may the earth shake at its core
    to the resounding roar of the cannon.

    Gird, oh country, your brow with olive
    the divine archangel of peace,
    for your eternal destiny was written
    in the heavens by the hand of God.

    But if some strange enemy should dare
    to profane your ground with his step,
    think, oh beloved country, that heaven
    has given you a soldier in every son.

    War, war without truce to any who dare
    to tarnish the country’s coat-of-arms!
    War, war! Take the national pennants
    and soak them in waves of blood.

    War, war! In the mountain, in the valley,
    the cannons thunder in horrid unison
    and the resonant echoes
    cry out Union,
    Liberty!

    Oh country, ‘ere your children
    defenseless bend their neck to the yoke,
    May your fields be watered with blood,
    may they trod upon blood.

    And may your temples, palaces and towers
    collapse with horrid clamor,
    and their ruins live on to say:
    This land belonged to a thousand heroes.

    Oh, country, country, your children swear
    to breathe their last in your honor,
    if the trumpet with warlike accent
    should call them to fight with courage.

    For you the olive branches!
    A reminder for them of glory!
    A laurel of victory for you!
    For them a tomb with honor!

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    2. how would like to teach that one to your 5 year olds and explain it to them, how do you profane the ground with a step and why are there so many fields of blood daddy?

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  11. our fearless blog leader dale has so many interesting blog topics dinasaurs, star images and planet stuff, in addition to the daily watch topics and commentaries. the national geographic daily news that dale passed on the information from had a little ditty in the corner about the oil spill clean up efforts.
    don’t you just hate it when the media spend 18 hours a day on a story then just go away, i think i remember hearing the valdez folk talking about how once it blew over the news crews and the exxon clean up crews went away together leaving the fisherfolk industry and the locals to deal with the little inconvenience that occured and cost those couple of guys their jobs. now back to obamas health plan then the next thing. can’t we make an effort to make them follow through when the planet gets shellaced but no brains? they are off the hook and we will get around to it later. 500 billion in a trust? i’ll bet the payments have slowed down a bit.

    o hey great brittan
    land of bp
    come clean our oceans
    come clean our sea

    the companys namesake
    stayed awfully quiet
    while the world was quaking
    with an oil spill riot

    now the news crews have moved on
    the message has passed
    the cameras are elsewhere
    they’ve moved on at last

    onward brittania
    who once ruled the seas
    tell your humble servant
    to make it right please

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  12. Glub, Morning, Glub, Gurrgle, Glub….

    Six or seven inches of rain here since it started yesterday… at least it’s been over several hours with only short ‘downpours’. Creeks are high but nothing really ‘flooded’ yet that I’ve heard of.
    Oh, sorry, what was the question?

    National Anthems! Nope… I got nothing. Vaguely related, my chiropractor mentioned the other day that he speaks 3 or 4 different languages.

    AND– as of this morning my daughter has a locker at school!!

    Keep a weather eye everyone!

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      2. Oh dear, its true. Whenever we who live west of the Missouri have sufficient precip, everybody to the east floods out. I have a bad premonition of what the Red is going to do in Fargo and the RR Valley if this keeps up. We have had .40 of an inch today, which is a lot at any time and certainly unususal for this time of year. I have never seen it do green out here in September.

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      3. She may have actually stashed an umbrella in it this morning.

        I asked Senior Son if he uses his locker and at the moment its’ content is his Math book– when he’s not using it for homework of course…

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  13. This dino discovery, along with the triceratops/torosaurus kerfuffle, seem to me to point toward a need for a new field of paleolithic science. Dino-Phrenology! I think we are in need of experts that are skilled at reading the bumps on dino’s heads. Not only would this help with technical species identification, it could also provide new insights into dino’s psychological and personality makeup. How valuable is that???

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    1. Dale, you need to add kerfuffle, that good old favorite word in “Anne of Green Gables,” to your sentence, a la tgith.

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  14. O Canada
    Our home and native land
    True patriot love in all thy sons command

    With glowing hearts
    We see thee rise
    The true North strong and free

    From far and wide
    O Canada we stand on guard for thee

    God keep our land
    Glorious and free
    O Canada we stand on guard for thee
    O Canada we stand on guard for thee!

    That’s it. I do know the Star Spangled Banner. I sang it for athletic groups in high school with a quartet. I tried learning Finland’s national anthem when I was younger, but I could never keep it in my head. Maybe someday…

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  15. I used to know the anthem for the USSR. Sang along when the Moscow circus came to town (long enough ago that it was still the Soviet anthem, and not the Russian anthem). Got me some funny looks there in the stands of what was then the new Target Center. Hard to translate it from the Cyrillic (and I’m not talented enough to know the ASCII for the Cyrillic) – but it went something like “Soyuz nirushimwi, respublik svobodnik…” (it looks prettier in the Cyrillic). Has a nice, rousing, regal tune to go along with it.

    Daughter has already decided that she wants to be WordGirl (from PBS Kids) for Halloween – otherwise I might suggest one of the new dinosaurs. It would be fun to have an excuse to papier mache a big frill with horns…

    Stay dry all!

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      1. I have begged off being Captain Huggy Face. Daughter is lobbying for me to make a costume for our basset hound to be Huggy (not sure if Barney is that patient). She does have an appropriately-sized stuffed monkey that may get dressed to play the part.

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      1. OOOoooo I love her too.

        My favorite is Dr. 2 Brains though. Such a sad story, but I love how he sometimes reads his stage directions off the cue cards.

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      2. Don’t know if you’re on at all this late in the evening, but wondering if you saw today’s episode, MIG: Dr. Two Brains singing! Wheee! It was silly.

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  16. I know no other anthems but in good spirits offer this old dinosaur from Peter and Lou Berryman

    ARTIST: Lou and Peter Berryman
    TITLE: Your State’s Name Here
    Lyrics

    Sometimes when the grass is blown by the breeze
    There’s a far away look in the leaves of the trees
    A memory returns, heartbreakingly clear
    Of a place I call home, [Your state’s name here]

    No sky could be deeper, no water so clear
    As back in the meadows of [Your state’s name here]
    I’m gonna go back, although I don’t know when
    There’s no other place like [Your state’s name again]

    {Refrain}
    Oh [Your state’s name here], oh [Again], what a state
    I have not been back since [A reasonable date]
    Where the asphalt grows soft in July every year
    In the warm summer mornings of [Your state’s name here]

    My grampa would come and turn on the game
    And fall asleep drinking [Your local beer’s name]
    While gramma would sing in the garden for hours
    To all of [The names of indigenous flowers]

    The songs that she sang were somewhat obscure
    She learned from the local townspeople I’m sure
    The language they use is not very clear
    Like [Place a colloquialism right here]

    {Refrain}

    I’d love to wake up where [The state songbird] sings
    Where they manufacture [The names of some things]
    Like there on the bumper, a sticker so clear
    An I, then a heart, and then [Your state’s name here]

    Whisper it soft, it’s a song to my ear
    [Your state’s name here, your state’s name here]
    It’s there I was born and it’s there I’ll grow old
    By the rivers of blue and the arches of gold

    {Refrain}

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  18. when going to visit in our minnesota
    there are 10,000 lakes you can see
    but in september the year two thousand and ten
    we will likely be down to just 3

    we love our water and we love our state
    and we love the change of the seasons
    get 10 inches of rain, the streams become lakes
    and you need to remember those reasons

    in mankato ,st peter,owatanna and tracy,
    the folks there will not soon forget
    it was raining so hard three inches would fall
    in a break for a quick cigarette

    the rivers ripped trees form the banks where they stood
    and the fields of corn got all cleared,
    the water kept rising, basements got full
    and the streets of the towns disappeared,

    but we’re minnesotans and we love our weather
    talking about it is something we like
    so in the worst we have seen if you time it just right
    you can still get out and ride your bike.

    we’re minnesotans
    mighty minnesotans
    everywhere we go
    people wanna know
    who we are
    so we tell em
    we’re minnesotans…..

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