Rudolf Swoboda, Austrian
“If We Find a Source of Fresh Water in These Mountains, I’ll Eat My Hat!”
Twenty Minutes Later:
Before 1859
Oil on panel
Follow That Is Priceless on Social Media and GoComics (the Link button):
Click to Follow This Blog or Share This Masterpiece:
Info, or perhaps links that point to more info, about this artist can be found here (Google translated), perhaps in addition to what’s in his Wikipedia page.
/// As three men across Purgstall traversed,
they were seized by a powerful thirst.
One man stands as he sips,
his hat’s brim to his lips.
Shuns canteens if another drank first.
/// He does think his friends’ germs are a threat.
If he caught a cold, he’d be upset.
But it’s also true that
he likes sips from his hat.
It tastes salty because of his sweat.
/// Ought not use _that_ hat as a canteen.
Fungus grew on it, fuzzy and green.
It was clearly unclean,
but what he hadn’t seen,
were birds treating it as a latrine.
/// The wood staff that he used on this hike
must be stuck in the ground like a pike.
Yet it seems to suspend
in mid-air. Neither end
appears sharp with a point like a spike.
/// The third man is a lax, careless type,
whose neglect made the other two gripe.
All the water they’d brought
was used up when they fought
brushfires started by sparks from his pipe.
/// If you’ve lost a bet and, in defeat,
you have promised your hat you will eat,
you should wear something small
with no feathers at all.
For a meal, pork pie hats can’t be beat.