MONDEGREEN REDUX

In yesterday's article "CARLY", I used the word "MONDEGREEN";  several people asked for an explanation.  

Below is a Sue's News article published in 2013:

                                                   MONDEGREEN

A Facebook friend posted that she sings the wrong lyrics to Smells Like Teen Spirit, much to her husband's consternation. I wrote to her that there's an actual word--MONDEGREEN--for that problem; MONDEGREEN means: 

"a word or phrase resulting from mishearing a word or phrase, usually in song lyrics." 

An example:  "The girl with colitis goes by" rather than "The girl with kaleidoscope eyes"from the Beatles song Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds.

CLICK HERE to see my BLOG article MY BOYFRIEND'S BACK describing my gaffes as well as ones from others.

CARLY

Recently, at dinner with our nephew Daren and his family, Daren's girlfriend showed us pictures of her family and one of her daughters is named Carly.  I said that I loved the name because we love Carly Simon and she said she'd named her for Carly.  Naturally, I began singing parts of You're So Vain:

"You had one eye in the mirror
As you watched yourself gavotte."

I exclaimed, "Only Carly would rhyme apricot with gavotte."  Daren's daughter Emily chimed in with, "And YACHT"  I asked if they knew the definition of gavotte:

"a medium paced French dance, popular in the eighteenth century, marked by raising, rather than sliding the foot."

Later that evening I was telling my brother about the conversation.  He asked, "Don't you remember that's a famous MONDEGREEN because a lot of people thought Carly sang 'As you watched yourself go by it' rather than gavotte?"

There has been much speculation that You're So Vain was written about Warren Beatty or Mick Jagger, but Carly always refused to divulge the information.  At a charity auction, Dick Ebersol paid $50,000 for Carly to whisper in his ear the identity of the the subject of the song, with the proviso that he would not reveal it.  Ebersol never revealed the name.

I think that Jagger is more likely to gavotte!

NASTY WOMAN

I often refer to the LAW OF UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES:

"outcomes that are not the ones foreseen or intended by any purposeful action."

Of course there is no such law, but like Murphy's Law, it is now usually used in a humorous way.  Although the idea is referenced by John Locke, Adam Smith, and others, the phrase was popularized by the American sociologist Robert K. Merton.

My favorite recent example:  NASTY WOMAN.   

During the Third Presidential Debate Secretary Clinton's opponent referred to her as a "nasty woman" and within a day, there were tee-shirts, and all kinds of merchandise emblazoned with the logo NASTY WOMAN available.  Celebrities such as Katy Perry were soon spotted wearing the apparel.

In the intervening months since the intended insult the logo has continued and was quite prevalent at the March On Washington on January 21 and at other resistance movement events, I have seen quite a number of sisters wearing the symbol.   

Now, there are battles over the patent and copyrights as several people have applied for the rights.

I doubt if that is the outcome--the consequence-- Secretary Clinton's opponent had hoped for--intended-- with his insult.  My brother quipped, "The Litigator-In-Chief will probably be suing the ones trying to patent or copyright;  after all, he tried to copyright YOU'RE FIRED!"

42-YEAR OLD GRANDFATHER......

I am irritated whenever I read newspaper coverage or see see television reporters use the lead, something similar to this:  "The 42-year-old grandmother...."  usually followed by a report of  some criminal activity. 

I swear I have never seen an article or report referencing a "The 42-year-old grandfather..." or any other aged grandfather, have you?  Just this week our local paper described a woman as a"grandmother" although it had no relevance to the accompanying report.  If being a grandmother were relevant to an article, I could understand the inclusion, but it rarely is.  

Is being a grandmother--to a woman of a certain age-- a woman's principal identity?  I don't think so.  I don't think so.  I have seen Hillary Clinton referred to as a grandparent, but not Bill Clinton!  I've seen Ruth Bader-Ginsburg so identified, but not Stephen Breyer!  Goldie Hawn but not Harrison Ford? Always! 

In an earlier BLOG article, I noted the THREE STAGES OF A WOMAN'S LIFE (which includes my humorous addition as I am not a mother).

1. SOMEBODY'S DAUGHTER
2. SOMEBODY'S WIFE
3. SOMEBODY'S MOTHER.

Well, I guess I can add another stage:

SOMEBODY'S GRANDMOTHER.

COMMENTS

I usually like the comments I receive at Sue's News, but I loved it when I received a comment from the historian Jo Paoletti whose book Pink And Blue, Telling The Girls From The Boys In America I used as a reference, although she corrected me! 

She responded to my article "GENDER-SPECIFIC" which was about the differences between the choices of pink and blue for babies.  I wrote that I thought it was because of the influence of the paintings The Blue Boy and Pinkie.

Although I certainly know that Sir Thomas Lawrence was the artist who painted Pinkie, rather than Gainsborough, I only used my flippant remark in the article rather than being specific; however, I am posting the correction pointed out by Paoletti.

This is Paoletti's response to my article:

Kimberly Christian-Campbell has an excellent article about Blue Boy and Pinky and the history of pink.  I didn't mention it in the book, but it is a bit of a modern urban legend.  The two paintings were not companion pieces or even by the same artist.  Gainsborough however, did paint a Pink Boy:

Link to the article:  http:///.huntington.org/uploadedfiles/Files/PDFs/ss2013Frontiers.pdf.

RULE OF THUMB AND OTHER CLICHES

I am fascinated to know the origin of sayings and cliches.  My grandmother and mother had a trove of sayings and my brothers and I use them frequently but I notice that most younger people do not "get" them (just as I, a younger person at the time,  did not "get" my mother's usage of AN AXE TO GRIND in yesterday's BLOG article).  

One old saying I do NOT use is "RULE OF THUMB" because it stems from the fact that in old English law a man was allowed to punish his wife and children with a rod as large as this THUMB.

Some interesting ones:

"GOD WILLING AND THE CREEK DON'T RISE" is an ungrammatical rendering of "God willing and the CREEKS don't rise". It was written by Benjamin Hawkins, who was asked by the President to return to Washington from his diplomatic mission with the Creek Indians. He wrote: "God willing and the Creeks don't rise.", meaning Native Americans and not a body of water.

"IT WILL COST AN ARM AND A LEG":  painters would charge for portraits based on the number of limbs in a picture as limbs, especially hands, are more difficult to render, thus artists would charge more for all the arms and legs in a picture. (e.g.: notice on a number of portraits of George Washington; one has him standing behind a desk with one arm behind his back while others showed both legs and both arms)

"BIG WIG":  in the old days, people bathed just twice a year; women kept their hair covered and men shaved their heads (because of lice) and wore wigs. Wealthy men could afford nice wigs made from wool. They couldn't wash the wigs so to clean them but they would carve out a loaf of bread, put the wig in the shell and bake for thirty minutes. The heat would make the wigs big and fluffy, hence the term "BIG WIG".

"CHAIRMAN":  in the 1700s it was common to have just one chair in a room and a long wide board folded down for dining. The head of the household always sat in the chair while everyone else sat on the floor. Occasionally, when a male guest was there, he would be invited to sit in the chair. To sit in the chair meant that the person was important or in charge. The one sitting in the chair was the "CHAIR MAN".

"CRACK A SMILE", "LOSING FACE", and "MIND YOUR OWN BEES WAX":  women would spread melted bees wax over their face to remove unwanted hair and pimples. If she smiled while the wax was on her face, it would crack the wax, thus, "CRACK A SMILE"; if she sat too close to the fire, the wax would melt, thus "LOSING FACE"; if someone said something negative she would say, "MIND YOUR OWN BEES WAX"!

"STRAIGHT-LACED": A proper and dignified woman who required help lacing her corset in the back was said to be "STRAIGHT-LACED".

However, I am NOT going to tell the derivation of "HAVING YOUR TURN IN THE BARREL"!