Thoughts on "cool"

Mark Mandel thnidu at GMAIL.COM
Mon Feb 11 19:33:31 UTC 2008


I don't think of nose rings and other non-ear piercings as going with the
fifties at all. Unless convinced otherwise (Wilson?), I have to visualize
that ring in the nose as part of the royal garb and fixtures of the imagined
royal African ancestor in his regalia -- assumed or stereotypical, whether
or not anthropologically accurate.

I don't know if this affects the analysis of "cool" here, but it's my $.02
worth.

On Feb 10, 2008 6:58 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
> >
> > On 2/9/08, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
> >
> > > -----
> > > 1902 E. P. MORAN & P. L. DUNBAR Evah Dahkey is King (song) in _N.Y.
> > > Amer. & Jrnl._ 26 Oct. (Music Suppl.), When we's crowned we don't wear
> > > satins, Kase de way we dress is cooler.
> > > -----
> > >
> > > Here is the entire verse, or at least one version of it:
> > >
> > > -----
> > > http://historymatters.gmu.edu/mse/songs/question1.html
> > > Evah dahkey has a lineage dat de white folks can't compete wid
> > > An' a title, such as duke or earl, why we wouldn't wipe our feet wid
> > > Fa a kingdom is our station, an' we's each a rightful ruler
> > > When we's crowned we don't wear satins, Kase de way we dress is
> cooler. Ho!
> > > But our power's jest as mighty, nevah judge kings by deir cloes
> > > You could nevah tell a porter wid a ring stuck through his nose.
>

--
Mark Mandel

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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