[Ads-l] What does the ugly stick look like?

[Ben Zimmer]

As I just noted in a comment on Arnold's blog post, Australians have their
own version of this instrument -- it's called a "lagerphone" (because the
bottle caps come from beer bottles). Instructions for making one are here:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-a-lagerphone/


On Wed, Nov 2, 2016 at 7:18 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_SWPeyb1pg
>
> JL
>
> On Tue, Nov 1, 2016 at 10:56 PM, Joel Berson <berson at att.net> wrote:
>
> > The NYTimes article includes the two elements Jon lists when describing
> > the initiation ceremony, but is silent about the presence of an ugly
> stick;
> > the ugly stick is only mentioned when describing the musical.
> >
> > Jon, just how did you wield the ugly stick?
> >
> > Joel
> >
> >
> >       From: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> >  To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> >  Sent: Tuesday, November 1, 2016 9:40 PM
> >  Subject: Re: [ADS-L] What does the ugly stick look like?
> >
> > I've actually wielded a Newfoundland ugly stick in a "musical"
> performance
> > which was part of my ritual initiation as an "honorary Newfoundlander" in
> > the town of Trinity.
> >
> > Other parts of the ritual included kissing a codfish on the lips and
> > downing a dram of the local "screech."
> >
> > Make your own ugly stick:
> >
> > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8Mgzr-kwnw
> >
> > I do not know if this "folk instrument" antedates the 1980s, at least
> under
> > the current name.
> >
> > JL
> >
> > On Tue, Nov 1, 2016 at 7:53 PM, Joel Berson <berson at att.net> wrote:
> >
> > > From "A 9/11 Parable, Staged for Samaritans," by Michael Paulson,
> > NYTimes,
> > > Nov. 1, 2016, Arts, C5/6 [New England Edition], discussing the grand
> > first
> > > performance ever in Gander, Newfoundland, of the musical "Come From
> > Away,"
> > > which is centered on the hospitality shown stranded international
> > airplane
> > > passengers and crew diverted to and grounded there after the attack on
> > the
> > > World Trade Center towers.
> > >
> > >
> > > "They [the audience] stomped their feet at the Celtic-inspired
> folk-rock
> > > [sic!] and cheered the ugly stick, a local instrument fashioned from
> > bottle
> > > caps and a boot attached to an upside-down mop."
> > >
> > > Unfortunately, the NYT article does not describe how the ugly stick was
> > > employed in the musical.
> > >
> > > Joel
> > >
> > >
>

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