Sunday, August 11, 2024

Joseph and the Dangerous Potter’s Wheel


This story was created by my youngest sister when she was extremely young, too young to write. It was thus never written down (until now), so unfortunately much of the detail has been lost.

The hero of the story was Joseph, the youngest of three brothers, and it had a very unique villain: a Dangerous Potter’s Wheel, always referred to as such. I think at some point someone must have warned my sister not to touch a moving potter’s wheel because it was “dangerous,” and, kids being impressionable, this had cemented the Dangerous Potter’s Wheel in her mind as a sort of personification of menace.

Joseph set out to defeat the Dangerous Potter’s Wheel, his two elder brothers having tried and failed to do so. He had an ally in this quest: a magical “Pop-in-the-Jack” (jack-in-the-box) that was alive. Joseph would turn the crank, and the Pop-in-the-Jack would speak to him in rhymes. Then, with a shout of “Pop-in-the-Jack!” it would spring out of its box and present him with some object to help him on his quest.

Fully equipped with gifts from the Pop-in-the-Jack, Joseph was about to set off when he decided to give it one more crank, just in case. The Pop-in-the-Jack began to chant:

Something yet
You did not get
Pop-in-the-Jack!
My sword

Armed with the Pop-in-the-Jack’s sword, Joseph “killed” the Dangerous Potter’s Wheel by “cutting off its head.” Then Joseph was so happy, and his two brothers cried and cried.

3 comments:

Ra1119bee said...

William,

Interesting the image of Drake is yellow and red.
Yellow and red : Man Overboard

Recall in Back to the Future, in the 'cafe scene' where Marty
sees his father for the first time. ( link below )
Listen to the soda fountain owner asks Marty this : " Hey kid,
what did you do JUMP SHIP? What's with the Life Preserver?"
( referring to Marty's rust color 'puffer' vest)
Which of course Drake is wearing a 'puffer' in this image.

Another scene in the movie Doc Brown also alludes to Marty
being in the navy.
In the clip below, starting abt marker/frame 1:11 or so listen
as Doc Brown 'reads' Marty's thoughts and says as he (Doc Brown)
touches Marty's 'puffer vest : "You want me
to make a donation to the Coast Guard Youth Auxiliary") insinuating
that Marty's vest suggests that Marty must be in the Navy.

Also note Doc Brown's 'lighted' street address sign.
1640 which adds up to 11. Perhaps suggesting that Doc Brown
is an 11? Which the character Doc Brown was a composite
of Operation Paperclip's Wernher_von_Braun,

Yet another 'Navy' life preserver comment was made
by Lorraine's mother.
( see link below )

Although I don't understand Drake's puffer jacket connection
to the Potter's Wheel ?
The first thing I did think of however was the Wheel of Time.
Recall I commented before about my perspective of how souls
travel around the Wheel of Time.

Or perhaps the connection with Drake is also : Man Overboard
factoring in the word Drake means male duck which
of course a duck having connections to the water especially
diving (head under water).

Also and a bit of a play on words as far as connections
to 'falling DOWN ( man overboard) is Drake's puffer :
A puffer jacket is also known as a DOWN Coat/Jacket
a quilted coat which is insulated with either duck or goose feathers.

I also found it interesting the word Potter in etymology especially
where it concerns Potter's Field, which is a term I'm familiar with
growing up in a poor neighborhood.

I found this description about Potter's Field interesting
and interestingly the words field and wheel sounds somewhat similar.
copy and paste:
"Potter's field "piece of ground reserved as a burying place
for friendless paupers, unknown persons, and criminals"
(1520s; early 14c. as potter's place) is Biblical (Matthew xxvii.7)
a ground where clay
suitable for pottery was dug, later purchased by high priests
of Jerusalem as a burying ground for strangers, criminals, and the poor.

[Purchased with the coins paid to Judas for betraying Jesus;
these being considered blood money it was then known
in Aramaic as Akeldema, "field of blood."]
~~~~~~~
Also in the 1946 movie : It's a Wonderful Life, the antagonist
is a character named Henry Potter and Potter's Field is mentioned
in that movie.

I also found it interesting that the material used for pottery
is Clay, which makes this description of clay that more
interesting as well.
copy and paste:
"Old English clæg "stiff, sticky earth; clay," from Proto-Germanic *klaijaz (source also of Old High German kliwa "bran,
and this :
"In Scripture, the stuff from which the body of the first man was formed; hence "human body" (especially when dead).
~~~~~~~
Back to the future - Cafe scene - (1985)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-rihCFNsqQ

Marty meets Doc in 1955 | Back To The Future | CLIP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5-8nJcxPCw

Back To The Future (1985) - Marty At Baines's Dinner Scene in 1955
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IB92dvu5Z7M

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wernher_von_Braun

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_a_Wonderful_Life

WanderingGondola said...

A cute little story! I appreciated the meme too.

Wm Jas Tychonievich said...

Two days later, the Bee juxtaposes a jack-in-the-box and biblical Egypt.

"Why?!" local Israelite Dathan cried out. "Is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to a Jack in the Box in the wilderness? Why have you dealt with us in this way, bringing us out of Egypt?"

https://babylonbee.com/news/israelites-say-theyll-stick-with-manna-after-jack-in-the-box-location-opens-in-wilderness

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