_Break nasty_ = "jump salty"

Mon May 3 23:34:08 UTC 2010

I missed it, Wilson. How could I have done that?

JL

On Mon, May 3, 2010 at 7:07 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: _Break nasty_ = "jump salty"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > 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:
> >
> >> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >> -----------------------
> >> 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
> >>
> >> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >>  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."
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > 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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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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