[Ads-l] _Hawaiian disease_

[Jonathan Lighter]

Even when I was twelve, I recognized that as one of the most annoying songs
ever written.

Of course, things have gotten much worse since then.

JL

On Thu, Mar 15, 2018 at 1:49 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> "Where do you work-a, John?"
> "On the Delaware Lackawann'[a & Western RR]
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58VA2VJ8eCM&index=1&list=
> PL6F20F391DE86F697
>
> On Tue, Mar 13, 2018 at 9:53 AM, Margaret Winters <mewinters at wayne.edu>
> wrote:
>
> > Then there is Lakawanna - clearly no motivation for anything...
> >
> >
> > ----------------------------
> > MARGARET E WINTERS
> > Former Provost
> > Professor Emerita - French and Linguistics
> > Wayne State University
> > Detroit, MI  48202
> >
> > mewinters at wayne.edu
> >
> >
> >
> > ________________________________
> > From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of
> > Peter Reitan <pjreitan at HOTMAIL.COM>
> > Sent: Monday, March 12, 2018 8:15 PM
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > Subject: Re: _Hawaiian disease_
> >
> > There's a Hawaiian-themed restaurant in Mammoth Lakes California called
> > Lakanuki Cafe, and they make no obvious effort to play-up the joke of
> their
> > name.
> >
> > It was probably the third time I ate there that I figured it out.
> >
> > Either they were very subtle or I was very dim.  I prefer to believe it
> > was the former.
> >
> > (Shut up!)
> >
> >
> > ________________________________
> > From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of
> > Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Sent: Monday, March 12, 2018 3:08 PM
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > Subject: Re: _Hawaiian disease_
> >
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: _Hawaiian disease_
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > -------------------
> >
> > Have you checked "lakanuki" in HDAS?
> >
> > JL
> >
> > On Mon, Mar 12, 2018 at 6:01 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > In Green's, the primary [=3D straight] definition is "the lack of
> female
> > > company." In '50's St. Louis, it was part of the set-up to the
> following
> > > pun:
> > >
> > > a. Do you know what the "Hawaiian disease" is?
> > > b. No. What?
> > > a. Lack o' nookie.
> > >
> > > At one time, the Hawaiian lovesong, K=C4=81ua I Ka Huahua=CA=BBi,
> > mistran=
> > slated into
> > > English as "Hawaiian War Chant," was sufficiently popular that
> everybody
> > > knew enough about what Hawaiian sounded like to understand the point of
> > t=
> > he
> > > punning answer to the question.
> > >
> > > Googling reveals an alternative answer: "Lack o' moolah." HDAS dates
> > > _moolah_ "money" from at least 1939. So, who knows which version is
> > older=
> > ?
> > >
> > > Oddly, the home of St. Louis's Shriners is the Moolah Temple of the
> > Mysti=
> > c
> > > Shrine. Whether this name has anything to do with the slang term I have
> > n=
> > o
> > > idea, though I've been wondering about it since '40's..
> > >
> > > Another "oddly" is that the "lack o'" version seems not to show up in
> > pri=
> > nt
> > > till 2010 or so and neither HDAS nor GDS has it, seemingly.
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > -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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> >
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> >
> > --=20
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
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> > Devoted to the study of English around the world.
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>
>
> --
> -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
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



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

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