jinx

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated 8/7/02 2:45:59 PM Eastern Daylight Time, gcohen at UMR.EDU
quotes Barry Popik :

> I also found a citation for the
> fictitious name "Calamatiy W. Jinx," in the humor magazine PUCK in the
1880s.

There was a woman known to history and contemporaries as "Calamity Jane" (one
of Wild Bill Hickock's wilder sidekicks) who was at the height of her
notoriety circa 1880.  Was she well-enough known in the East, or wherver PUCK
was published, that "Calamity W. Jinx" was a play on her name?

>  >    "Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines" was a play in the early 1900s.
The
>  >song was especially popular with the men who played baseball.  There's no
>  >doubt in my mind that "jinx" comes from "jinks" comes from "Captain Jinks,
>  >the curse of the army."

Much of the humor in the song "Captain Jinks" comes from the fact that the
setting of the song is totally preposterous (as preposterous as my own pet
theory that Jinks was a parody of Joseph Bonaparte (the man who managed to
lose the Battle of Victory).  First, there are no "horse Marines".  Marines
are seagoing INFANTRY and have been ever since they defeated the Punes in the
First Punic War.   "Horse Marines" in the early 1900s would be as unlikely as
"airborne cavalry" nowadays.  Furthermore the US Marines are part of the NAVY
so how could Captain Jinks be the curse or anything else "of the army"?

      - Jim Landau