[Ads-l] Dialect clash

[Wilson Gray]

Back ib the '50's, I heard a new, R&B instrumental jam that the DJ called
"Blue Cinder." Not only did I like the tunemusic, but I was also much
intrigued by the title. A cinder is usually grey, though I could easily
feature a very hot cinder as glowing more or less red. But, under what
circumstance would a cinder be *blue*? What could the composer have been
thinking of that he would conceive of a cinder as "blue"? What could have
happened in his life that he would picture in his mind a cinder that was
_blue_? It was downright Dali-esque.

Anyway, I went down to Joe's Music Shop and bought a copy. When I got back
home, opened the package, and pulled out the record, I was much
disappointed to discover that the title of the song was, in fact, the very
ordinary and mundane "Blue Sender."

Youneverknow.

IAC, I was somewhat mollified by the thought that, though the composer had
_written_ "sender," he very likely would have _said_ "cinder." Besides,
most readers of a certain age will recall a song by Elvis from the same
time: "Return to Cinder."

-- 
-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