The Stans are in the news every day, and not in a positive way. Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, to name but a few. What are we doing there? There doesn’t seem to be any valid reason why we should spend one dollar or one soldier’s life in that benighted tribal part of the world. I remember when Stan meant something else.

 

 

Ah yes, the Stans

The blessed Stans

We all remember well

Both Stan and Ollie

How sly and jolly

Despite each picture hell

Then Stan the Man

I was a fan

Though not from old St Looey

I well recall

He’d take a ball

Then hit one out of viewy

But that was then

And way back when

We weren’t so particular

Our Stans were not

What we’ve now got

A lot of perpendicular

Mountains steep

And valleys deep

All filled with guys in turbans

Not like Stan’s mates

Who manned the gates

The Slaughters and the Verbans

A Phillies fan

Who loved the Man

Who always took the trolley

To ballgame go

Then to the show

To see my Stan and Ollie