The twelfth of never

[Jonathan Lighter]

When the Clancy Bros. and Tommy Makem sang "Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye," they sang "You're an eyeless, boneless, chickenless egg."

  The original broadside says "noseless, chickenless...."

  The full cultural influence of the boneless chicken, early development of which may have been pursued by the Viking Ivar "the Boneless" Ragnarsson,  remains to be written.

  JL

Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Charles Doyle
Subject: Re: The twelfth of never
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In the 15th-century ms. of the so-called "Riddle Song," it's a DOVE withouten any bone. That was before boneless chickens became popular.

--Charlie
_________________________________________

---- Original message ----
>Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2006 14:51:24 -0700
>From: Jonathan Lighter
>Subject: Re: The twelfth of never
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
>
>My wife made me quit dating, so I'm not that kind of colleague. But I do know that "the twelfth of never" is not a phrase in "The Riddle Song," as it's often called. AFAIK, the phrase originated in the pop song.
>
> I have a friend who uses it relatively frequently, and he concurs.
>
> JL

>
>Wilson Gray wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>Sender: American Dialect Society
>Poster: Wilson Gray
>Subject: Re: The twelfth of never
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>
>The tune perhaps did. There's a folksong with the line, among others, "I gave my love a chicken without any bone," a line that I remember because of the double-entendre. However, I can't remember whether the folksong contains the phrase, "twelfth of never."
>
>OTOH, I could have it bass-ackwards, since I heard the pop song a couple of years or more before I heard the folksong. I.e., the supposed folksong could very well be based on the pop song and not the other way around, for all that I know.
>
>BTW, I appreciate your use of "dating colleagues" instead of the more accurate, in my case, at least, "_dated_ colleagues." ;-)
>
>-Wilson

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