This parody of Dr. Seuss' classic children's book The Grinch Who Stole Christmas made the rounds pretty quickly (this was the first version I received, on September 18th). It's actually a little difficult to know whether to call this a "parody" at all, since it really only borrows on the form and rhyme of Seuss' work (and not his style or spirit). In many ways, it defies generic classification as "parody" in that its subject matter seems so at odds with its form: describing the harrowing events of 9/11 in Dr. Seuss' singsong, childish cadence seems strange at best, perverse at worst.

That's really my own interpretation, however. A colleague received the same item on September 20th from a friend who lives in New York City (and who had, at one time, worked in one of the World Trade Center towers) who prefaced it by commenting, "This is amazing. I'm sitting here crying and laughing." In sending it to me, however, the colleague prefaced it by saying, "Here's some shocking, racist, nationalist shit."

These widely divergent responses suggest something important about e-lore: the fact that--despite its apparent lack of "local" context--such items can in fact be very local. That is to say that while the form remains the same, the same item might be more popular and circulate more widely in some areas (in this case, presumably, in New York/"U-ville"), and be received very differently elsewhere. This dynamic is echoed in the fact that so many of the items I received from John Zimmerman had been forwarded to him by friends and family back East.

While this archive is certainly not comprehensive enough to make any firm conclusions about theorigins or the distribution of these items, the opposing reactions to the "Binch" mentioned above do suggest that interpretations of these items can be very local indeed.

Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2001 10:28:36 -0400
From: Camille Bacon-Smith
Subject: The Binch who stole Tuesday
To: NEWFOLK@LISTSERV.TEMPLE.EDU

This just landed in my mailbox, and in the spirit of seeing what is out there, I thought I'd pass it on.
Camille

THE BINCH THAT STOLE TUESDAY

Every U down in U-ville liked U.S. a lot,
But the Binch, who lived Far East of U-ville, did not.
The Binch hated U.S! the whole U.S. way!
Now don't ask me why, for nobody can say,
It could be his turban was screwed on too tight.
Or the sun from the desert had beaten too bright
But I think that the most likely reason of all
May have been that his heart was two sizes too small.

But, Whatever the reason, his heart or his turban,
He stood facing U-ville, the part that was urban.
"They're doing their business," he snarled from his perch.
"They're raising their families! They're going to church!
They're leading the world, and their empire is thriving,
I MUST keep the S's and U's from surviving!"

Tomorrow, he knew, all the U's and the S's,
Would put on their pants and their shirts and their dresses,
They'd go to their offices, playgrounds and schools,
And abide by their U and S values and rules,
And then they'd do something he liked least of all,
Every U down in U-ville, the tall and the small,
Would stand all united, each U and each S,
And they'd sing U-ville's song, "God bless us! God bless!"
All around their Twin Towers of U-ville, they'd stand,
and their voices would drown every sound in the land.

"I must stop that singing," Binch said with a smirk,
And he had an idea--an idea that might work!
The Binch stole some U airplanes in U morning hours,
And crashed them right into the U-ville Twin Towers.
"They'll wake to disaster!" he snickered, so sour,
"And how can they sing when they can't find a tower?"

The Binch cocked his ear as they woke from their sleeping,
All set to enjoy their U-wailing and weeping,
Instead he heard something that started quite low,
And it built up quite slow, but it started to grow--
And the Binch heard the most unpredictable thing...
And he couldn't believe it--they started to sing!

He stared down at U-ville, not trusting his eyes,
What he saw was a shocking, disgusting surprise!
Every U down in U-ville, the tall and the small,
Was singing! Without any towers at all!
He HADN'T stopped U-Ville from singing! It sung!
For down deep in the hearts of the old and the young,
Those Twin Towers were standing, called Hope and called Pride,
And you can't smash those U-towers we hold deep inside.

So we circle the sites where our heroes did fall,
With a hand in each hand of the tall and the small,
And we mourn for our losses while knowing we'll cope,
For we still have inside that U-Pride and U-Hope.

For America means a bit more than tall towers,
It means more than wealth or political powers,
It's more than our enemies ever could guess,
So may God bless America! Bless us! God bless!

—Author unknown