wackadoodle

[Jonathan Lighter]

Rev. Jeremiah Wright sez  [http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-wright-speaks_bothapr25,1,5539940.story]:

  "When something is taken like a sound bite for a political purpose and put constantly over and over again, looped in the face of the public, that's not a failure to communicate. Those who are doing that are communicating exactly what they want to do, which is to paint me as some sort of fanatic or as the learned journalist from The New York Times called me, a 'wackadoodle.' "


  Maureen Dowd used the word to describe Wright a few weeks back.

  HDAS files include several "w(h)ackadoo" back to 1979, but no "w(h)ackadoodle."  A Google search, however, shows it to be fairly common. Also "w(h)ackydoodle."

  For the culturally unsophisticated, Roger Miller had a big hit in 1965 with his song "Do Wacka Do," where the nonsense syllables were just that.  Clarence Gaskill, Wil Donaldson and George Horther get the blame for the 1924 smash with the oddly similar title "Doo Wacka Doo."

  Anyway, "wackadoodle" and its ilk clearly owe much to Miller et al., plus "w(h)acky."
  There was even a 1962 recording of "Doo Wacka Doo" by a group called The Wackadoodlers.

  JL



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