Not in HDAS?

[Wilson Gray]

On Aug 22, 2004, at 12:34 PM, James A. Landau wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "James A. Landau" <JJJRLandau at AOL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Not in HDAS?
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> In a message dated > Sat, 21 Aug 2004 22:52:37 -0400,  Wilson Gray <
>> wilson.gray at RCN.COM> writes
>>
>> BE "music roll" for "roll of toilet paper" also seems to be missing
>> [from
>> the HDAS].
>
> I would guess that "music roll" means "player piano roll", in which
> case the
> visual analogy with a roll of toilet paper is obvious.
>
> What is not obvious is why such a metaphor should appear ONLY in BE.
> I am
> not aware that player pianos play or played a significantly greater
> role (no pun
> intended) in African-American culture than in white culture.  Nor am I
> aware
> of any urban legend that white-only washrooms (yes, I have been around
> long
> enough to have observed segregated washrooms) had player pianos.
>
>       - James A. Landau
>

All right. I'm more than willing to grant that it may be only
fortuitous that I've never heard a European-American use "music roll"
in the sense of "roll of toilet paper." I once thought that "scream on"
with the meaning "harangue" was peculiar to BE until I heard a
European-American say that he had said to his wife, "Don't be screaming
on me!" She had been haranguing him about coming home late for dinner.
As Thomas "Fats" Waller once put it, "One never knows, do one?"

-Wilson Gray