rump-cord

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated 3/19/2003 1:10:25 PM Eastern Standard Time,
mam at THEWORLD.COM writes:

> : Mary pulled the rump-cord,
> : And blew it all to ... pieces!

perhaps a mondegreen for "rip-cord", implying that the folk author thought a
"rip-cord" was something used to detonate explosives rather than merely a
device for opening a packed parachute.  Or perhaps the author had actually
seen up close what happens when the ripcord of a parachute is pulled.  (I
once saw some skydivers demonstrate indoors what they do when they jump.  The
result was the parachute and its risers draped across the entire front of the
classroom.  "Blew it all to Hell/pieces" would be a mild exaggeration.)

Or perhaps "rump" for "rip" is deliberate.  I know of a version of that song
which goes:

   Lulu had a steamboat/ the steamboat had a bell
   Lulu went to Heaven / the steamboat went to
   Hello Operator / give me number nine
   And if you don't connect me / I'll stuff it up your
   Behind the [I forget the rest]

A possible source for this folk tune is the famous hobo singer "Haywire Mac"
(Harry McClintock) who performed and maybe wrote the lyrics "It was midnight
on the ocean/not a streetcar was in sight" to the same tune as  "Lulu/Mary
had a steamboat..."  Did McClintock write or perhaps merely sing a filk to an
existing folk tune, or did he compose the tune to which either he or Divers
NMI Hands later attached the words of the steamboat song?

A long-time SF fan named Ned Brooks once published a complete set of words to
"It was midnight on the ocean" and said they were from a Hollywood Bowl
concert by McClintock.  I'm afraid I have long since lost my copy.  I first
heard that song from the Pine Tree Girl, but she had no idea what the source
was.

OT: paratroopers often get asked "Why would you jump out of a perfectly good
airplane?"  A Green Beret of my acquaintance had an answer: "With the
National Guard pilots we get on training flights, you're safer jumping!"

      - Jim Landau