rooves

[Wilson Gray]

I've heard it used in TV ads by Boston-area locals. It looks like it's
gone - or already was - national. BTW, I wonder what happened to
"moonroof," used for "sunroof"? It always reminded me of "moonshades"
for sunglasses worn at night, hyper-hip in the days of be-bop, when
the trademark beret worn by Dizzy Gillespie - he once shook my hand! -
was known as a "be-bop tam" and his trademark glasses with their
heavy, Buddy Holly-style, black-plastic rims were imitated and worn on
the street, where they were known as "be-bop glasses." An R&B song of
the day, "But, Officer!" opened with the words:

"Hey, you! Boy in the _be-bop glasses_ and the blue-suede shoes! Come here!"

The rest of the song consisted entirely of a second voice saying
intermittemntly over the background music:

"But, officer!"

except for one time when the voice says:

"But, officer! I can walk a straight line!"

In my experience, "sunshades" was never used and the use of
"moonshades" preceded the still-current use of "shades" for
sunglasses. That is, FWIW, it seemed to me that, in Saint Louis, at
least, "moonshades" for sunglasses worn at night gave birth to the
clip, "shades," for sunglasses worn normally during the day.

-Wilson

On Feb 3, 2008 11:15 PM, Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at IX.NETCOM.COM>
> Subject:      rooves
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Cadillac ran a commercial today, mentioning "sunrooves".
>
> The only mention I find in the ADS archives on "rooves" is
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0501D&L=ADS-L&P=R4217&I=-3
>
> "The phrase comes from the days when most roofs were thatch.  Now thatch
> contains seeds, which means it attracts mice and rats who eat the
> seeds.  To get the rhodents out of their rooves, people would turn their
> cats and dogs loose on the roof.  When it rained, the felines and
> canines were washed off the roof, hence the expression." - James A. Landau
>
> (Note that this citation also includes the spelling "rhodents".)
>
> Benjamin Barrett
> a cyberbreath for language life
> livinglanguages.wordpress.com
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



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