Pretty sure its about an animal escaping from a slaughterhouse, living in freedom for a few months in the city parklands before being eventually and inevitably caught. Francis sounds like a pig's name to me.
Its funny because its really a heartbreaking song, about trying to escape from an terrible and ultimately inexorable fate, finding some fleeting happiness- "where for 5 months he ran free and replayed his only fond memory/ just a warm and distant dream of his mother's loving eyes upon him. Francis made it farther than she did" - before being caught just a quartermile away from getting out of the city. Its pretty tragic, but Its also about a pig. Or a cow, i guess.
A few things:
" There's a statue that the abattoir erected to remind us all of their contributions. To me it marks Potemkin City Limits, this Francis cast in bronze."
An abattoir is a slaughterhouse, so that is another point for the pretty obvious francis as an animal thing.
Potemkin villages, according to wikipedia: "Potemkin villages were purportedly fake settlements erected at the direction of Russian minister Grigori Aleksandrovich Potemkin to fool Empress Catherine II during her visit to Crimea in 1787. According to this story, Potemkin, who led the Crimean military campaign, had hollow facades of villages constructed along the desolate banks of the Dnieper River in order to impress the monarch and her travel party with the value of her new conquests, thus enhancing his standing in the empress's eyes."
Potemkin can then be used as an adjective for a fake or facade, something looking nice to conceal something bad, like with "potemkin forests" where a row of trees is put (or left, i guess) at the edge of a highway, to conceal the fact the forest has actually been decimated by clearcutting.
I guess then, potemkin city limits, would be the edge of the facade, the point where you can start to tell that its not actually real.
Well, other comments have established that this is a real story. http://www.bigthings.ca/alberta/reddeer.html
"Francis sounds like a pig's name to me,"
Yes, also, there was a famous english philosopher named Francis Bacon. Wonder if that's why we name pigs francis. Bacon.
Well, other comments have established that this is a real story. http://www.bigthings.ca/alberta/reddeer.html
"Francis sounds like a pig's name to me,"
Yes, also, there was a famous english philosopher named Francis Bacon. Wonder if that's why we name pigs francis. Bacon.
This song is great.
Pretty sure its about an animal escaping from a slaughterhouse, living in freedom for a few months in the city parklands before being eventually and inevitably caught. Francis sounds like a pig's name to me.
Its funny because its really a heartbreaking song, about trying to escape from an terrible and ultimately inexorable fate, finding some fleeting happiness- "where for 5 months he ran free and replayed his only fond memory/ just a warm and distant dream of his mother's loving eyes upon him. Francis made it farther than she did" - before being caught just a quartermile away from getting out of the city. Its pretty tragic, but Its also about a pig. Or a cow, i guess.
A few things: " There's a statue that the abattoir erected to remind us all of their contributions. To me it marks Potemkin City Limits, this Francis cast in bronze." An abattoir is a slaughterhouse, so that is another point for the pretty obvious francis as an animal thing.
Potemkin villages, according to wikipedia: "Potemkin villages were purportedly fake settlements erected at the direction of Russian minister Grigori Aleksandrovich Potemkin to fool Empress Catherine II during her visit to Crimea in 1787. According to this story, Potemkin, who led the Crimean military campaign, had hollow facades of villages constructed along the desolate banks of the Dnieper River in order to impress the monarch and her travel party with the value of her new conquests, thus enhancing his standing in the empress's eyes."
Potemkin can then be used as an adjective for a fake or facade, something looking nice to conceal something bad, like with "potemkin forests" where a row of trees is put (or left, i guess) at the edge of a highway, to conceal the fact the forest has actually been decimated by clearcutting.
I guess then, potemkin city limits, would be the edge of the facade, the point where you can start to tell that its not actually real.
Maybe this is based on a true story?
Well, other comments have established that this is a real story. http://www.bigthings.ca/alberta/reddeer.html "Francis sounds like a pig's name to me," Yes, also, there was a famous english philosopher named Francis Bacon. Wonder if that's why we name pigs francis. Bacon.
Well, other comments have established that this is a real story. http://www.bigthings.ca/alberta/reddeer.html "Francis sounds like a pig's name to me," Yes, also, there was a famous english philosopher named Francis Bacon. Wonder if that's why we name pigs francis. Bacon.