_Break nasty_ = "jump salty"

Mon May 3 23:07:22 UTC 2010

Have you seen the movie? Way less depressing than any of that
"Mandingo" crap and doesn't require any imagination, in the way that
"Voodoo Fire"  does! ;-)

=Wilson

On Mon, May 3, 2010 at 5:48 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: _Break nasty_ = "jump salty"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> But what of the lambada, "the Forbidden Dance"?
>
> JL
>
> On Mon, May 3, 2010 at 5:04 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>
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>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: _Break nasty_ =3D "jump salty"
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> ------
>>
>> In the book, Voodoo Fire in Haiti, by Richard A. Loederer, 1932, the
>> "danse kalinda" is identified as pretty much the center of the voodoo
>> ceremony and also states that "la meringue," possibly the same dance
>> now known in Spanish as "la merengue," is the national dance of Haiti.
>> Nowadays, the merengue regarded as the national dance of the Dominican
>> Republic, called "Saint-Domingue" by Loederer.
>>
>> The only story that I've ever heard - don't remember where; it may
>> even have been in Voodoo Fire - WRT the origin of the merengue is that
>> a king of Haiti had a son with one leg shorter than the other and,
>> hence, the son was a very awkward dancer. Better dancers, not wanting
>> to piss off the king by making the kid look lame, no pun intended,
>> adapted the prince's movements to their own style of dancing, thereby
>> preserving his dignity and their own arses.
>>
>> If you're familiar with the merengue's basic steps, this story seems
>> quite plausible. But that would still be the case, if the story had
>> merely been pulled out of somebody's ass. AFAIK, nowadays nobody
>> mentions any such Haitian dance as la merinqu=E9 or connects the
>> Dominican merengue with Haiti.
>>
>> I wouldn't bet money that the story was true.
>>
>> IAC, Loederer writes:
>>
>>
>> "The marimba band started a melody of strangely cloying and oppressive
>> rhythm.
>> A murmur ran around the room: _'La Merinque!_'
>> _The national dance of Haiti!_
>> Against a background of ponderous vibrations, the tune sobbed through
>> the smoky air in a monstrous abortion of the tango. It was a strange
>> dance. It was more than a dance=96a ritual performance, an ovation to
>> love, the ultimate love symbolized in the pairs of bodies, male and
>> female, so closely entwined as to be molten into one by the fierce
>> heat of their desire. They swayed over the floor, flexing this way and
>> that, eyes closed, mouths open, forgetting everything in the rapture
>> of their embrace and the subtle discords of the music."
>>
>> And WRT to the dance Kalinda:
>>
>> "It was the great purification. Only after a baptism of blood can the
>> good spirit Damballa enter the soul. A broad-shouldered, athletic
>> negro jumped up in front of me and shouted: 'Commencons! Danse
>> Calinda!' ...
>> A solid ring of naked, sweaty formed around the fire. They were
>> dancing the Calinda! More and more performers joined in, bodies
>> pressed close against one another, men and women, rubbing body to body
>> in the red glow of the flames. The irregular circle of a hundred
>> bodies molten into one Hydra-headed monster was carried along on
>> jerking bodies and stamping feet. The drums rolled faster. The black
>> throng revolved with ever-increasing rapidity. Around and around they
>> went, as the ground shook under the impact of two hundred feet!"
>>
>>
>> Whew!
>>
>> -Wilson
>>
>> On Sun, May 2, 2010 at 11:22 PM, Mark Mandel <thnidu at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> > Poster:       Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM>
>> > Subject:      Re: _Break nasty_ =3D "jump salty"
>> >
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> ------
>> >
>> > Then there may well be a connection. And I shouldn't have called it "a
>> Dr.
>> > John song": Dr. John (Mack Rebennack) recorded a version of it on
>> > "Gris-Gris" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gris-Gris), but I have no ide=
> a
>> > whether he wrote it.
>> >
>> > I found the album in the basement, and I still don't know. The song is
>> > credited as "By Dr. John Creaux", another form of his in-character stag=
> e
>> > name. But "Danse Kalinda Ba Doom" is credited "By Dr. John Creaux &
>> Harold
>> > Battiste", while the jacket notes (=3DC2=3DA9 1968 Atlantic Recording
>> Corporati=3D
>> > on)
>> > suggest that it's based on a trad. song:
>> >
>> > I HAVE ALSO DUG UP THE OLD DANSE KALINDA TO REMIND YOU WE HAVE NOT
>> CHOPPED
>> > OUT THE OLD CHANTS... [uppercase sic].
>> >
>> > Maybe I'll ask the Digital Tradition / Mudcat Forum, but not tonight.
>> >
>> > (Whoops, I see I conflated the idioms this morning, typing "jump nasty"
>> > instead of "jump steady".)
>> >
>> > Mark Mandel
>> >
>> > On Sun, May 2, 2010 at 7:57 PM, George Thompson <george.thompson at nyu.ed=
> u
>> >wr=3D
>> > ote:
>> >
>> >> I months or so ago I heard Louis Armstrong sing a number with the
>> >> expression "Jump Study" in the refrain.  Definitely "Study", not
>> "Steady"
>> >> (which would make some sense) or "Sturdy"
>> >>
>> >> Probably dated from the later 1930s or ealy 1940s.
>> >>
>> >> GAT
>> >>
>> >> George A. Thompson
>> >> Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
>> >> Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.
>> >>
>> >> ----- Original Message -----
>> >> From: Mark Mandel <thnidu at gmail.com>
>> >> Date: Sunday, May 2, 2010 10:51 am
>> >> Subject: Re: _Break nasty_ =3D3D "jump salty"
>> >> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> >>
>> >> > Interesting. I had not heard or seen either of these idioms before.
>> >> >
>> >> > "Jump nasty" immediately reminded me of a Dr. John song (N.Orleans,
>> >> sixties
>> >> > - present) with the chorus
>> >> >
>> >> > Jump Sturdy, Jump Sturdy was her name.
>> >> > She came out the swamp like a crazy fool.
>> >> >
>> >> > But I don't see any plausible connection. (The song, titled "Jump
>> >> Sturdy",
>> >> > is on his first LP, "*Gris-Gris"*, issued in the late sixties.)
>> >> >
>> >> > m a m
>> >> >
>> >> > On Sat, May 1, 2010 at 6:04 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote=
> :
>> >> >
>> >> > > Now in UD, with a surprising-reasonable set of definitions, from
>> 2005=3D
>> > .
>> >> > >
>> >> > > Otherwise, as far as the Web is concerned, _break nasty_ occurs on=
> ly
>> >> > > in the environment immediately before "... habits."
>> >>
>> >>
>> >
>> > ------------------------------------------------------------
>> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>> >
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> -Wilson
>> =96=96=96
>> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"=96=96a strange complaint t=
> o
>> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>> =96Mark Twain
>>
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>>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>
>
> --=20
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

--
-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

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