Quote: What if the Hokey-Pokey really is what it's all about? (1998 February 21)

[Wilson Gray]

On Sat, Dec 4, 2010 at 11:10 AM, Garson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
> Wilson Gray posted an entertaining philosophical quip that he saw as a
> graffito. The earliest instance of a version I have found so far is in
> 1998 in an article by sports writer Mike Bianchi.
>

Very interesting, Garson et al.! I came across the quote cited as
being a graffito carved into some random bar by some random customer.
When the bar-owner noticed it, he found it so intriguing that he had
it laminated to preserve it for future generations. Who knew that the
expression had any kind of datable history?! ;-)

Back in the Roaring 'Sixties. Mariska Hargitay's father, former Mr.
Universe Miklos "Mickey" Hargitay owned a topless -later, nudie - bar
in Los Angeles. One of the joint's dancers used The Hokey-Pokey as her
"theme song," as it were. This was in 1967, dated by the fact that
Aretha Franklin's Chain of Fools, used as her theme song by one of the
other dancers, was newly-released, at the time.

--
-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"––a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
–Mark Twain

Once we recognize that we do not err out of laziness, stupidity,
or evil intent, we can uncumber ourselves of the impossible burden of
trying to be permanently right. We can take seriously the proposition
that we could be in error, without necessarily deeming ourselves
idiotic or unworthy.
–Kathryn Schulz

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