The Popcorn Stand: Don’t use nursery rhymes for alarms

I’ve never understood nursery rhymes. I mean itsy, bitsy spiders, cradles in tree tops that fall, loud men snoring who bump their head and can’t get up — how in the world is all that supposed to be comforting to a toddler?

I also wonder if the person who came up with the phrase “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” was motivated by that it’s raining, it’s pouring nursery rhyme in which the old man bumps his head and can’t get up.

Well, I heard about this woman in England who was “terrified” by a nearby alarm that was constantly set off and kept playing the “it’s raining, it’s pouring” song.

Although I do think it would be cool if instead of our car alarms sounding like panicked creatures, a nice soothing soft rock song would play instead.

Back to the woman who had to deal with the nursery rhyme alarm, it went on for a about a year and she had no idea where the creepy sound was coming from.

She contacted authorities who tracked down the nursery rhyme alarm that was at a nearby business. The situation has been rectified with a much more acceptable — and much less noisy — alarm.

“The first time I heard it was the most terrifying thing ever, I went cold and felt sick, and thought ‘what on earth was that?’” the woman said. “It was “like something out of a horror movie.”

And of course the culprit who kept setting off the alarm was... an itsy-bitsy spider. The alarm was set off every time the spider crawled across a camera linked to the alarm.

So apparently the nursery rhyme is true. When it rained, this itsy bitsy spider kept coming up the spout.

— Charles Whisnand