mugwump

[Laurence Horn]

At 3:50 PM -0400 5/10/00, RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:
>In a message dated 5/10/2000 12:36:10 PM, lynnem at COGS.SUSX.AC.UK writes:
>
><< One more from Naked Lunch--Cass Elliott's pre-Mamas & Papas band was
>"Mugwump". >>
>
>MUGWUMP predates NAKED LUNCH!!!

Yes, but I believe Lynne was claiming that the band in question (which I
first heard cited in a Peter, Paul & Mary historical survey song tracing
the genealogy of the Mamas and Papas, Byrds, and various other
California-based groups in the 60s and whose refrain was "No one's gettin'
fat except Mama Cass") was named FOR the Mugwump in Naked Lunch, which is
quite possible.  The classical mugwump (the word itself comes from the
Massachusetts Indian language Natick, where it was a title corresponding to
'great chief' or (in Biblical translations) 'duke') was usually someone who
bolted his (or in principle her) own political party, or who was generally
indecisive or wishy-washy in a political context.  I recall coming across a
quip by someone, I can't recall who, to the effect that a mugwump is
someone who sits on the fence with his mug on one side and his wump on the
other.  Burroughs's extremely unpleasant Mugwump, who bears little obvious
relation to the 'political independent' sense of the term, may well have
been the source for Mama Cass's use of the name.

larry

P.S.  Wasn't there a mugwump in one of the Alice books?