Terms Which Have Disappeared

[niv]

I passed up a great opportunity, the reasons for which I will not go into now, to learn Spanish while growing up. Consequently, later in life I heard many "colloquialisms" while working in a largely Hispanic community I didn't understand. When asked their meaning, my Dad always explained "It means 'sweet potato.'" I remember thinking - at the time - "wow - local Hispanics sure have a lot of words for 'sweet potato!"

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

I always sort of assumed the ones I was eating had very little actual veal in them -- probably more elderly bulls all ground up with extenders and then given just a whisper of genuine veal for the sake of the name. They certainly didn't look like the actual veal meat you find now in the premium section of the butcher's case.

It's a similar situation with mutton. Americans won't eat mutton. They just know they don't like it. They will eat lamb. In consequence of which, Americans eat the oldest lambs on earth. It would be sold as mutton anywhere else, but Americans won't eat it if you call it that.

 

[ChrisB]

.....to reinforce this point they placed their in-house butcher shop right by the front entrance so the customers could watch the beef being prepared for their meal(s) while they waited in line to place their order.

They should have listened to what Bismarck had to say about law and sausage.

 

[BlueTrain]

Thought that was Mark Twain.

 

[ChrisB]

Thought that was Mark Twain.

Usually attributed to Bismarck, although he may not have been the first or only one to express that opinion.

 

[niv]

Usually attributed to Bismarck, although he may not have been the first or only one to express that opinion.

It was Bismarck.

 

[Stearmen]

“It profits a man little to see either his sausages or his laws being made” —Benjamin Franklin

 

[Zombie_61]

"The way to do is to be." - Lao Tzu
"The way to be is to do." - Dale Carnegie
"Do be do be do." - Frank Sinatra

 

[LizzieMaine]

Those who can, do.
Those who can't, get promoted.

 

[Fading Fast]

The Crystals

...Yeah, he caught my eye
Yes, oh my, oh my
And when he walked me home
Da do ron-ron-ron, da do ron-ron
Da do ron-ron-ron, da do ron-ron
Da do ron-ron-ron, da do ron-ron

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^
Phil Spector may be a homicidal maniac, but he sure could put together a great pop tune.

 

[Fading Fast]

^^^^^
Phil Spector may be a homicidal maniac, but he sure could put together a great pop tune.

It was that Wall Of Sound - it just blasted its way into you.

 

[Zombie_61]

It was that Wall Of Sound - it just blasted its way into you.

Yeah...like being pummeled by Mike Tyson.

 

[Stearmen]

The great philosopher, Chuck Berry: When they took me to Sunday School
Tried to teach me the golden rule
But every time the choir would sing
Catch me playing with my ding a ling

 

[Fading Fast]

Yeah...like being pummeled by Mike Tyson.

Best Mike Tyson quote: "Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth."

He captured an entire sleeve of Game Theory study with that one.

Also, basically he re-worked (knowingly or not) the famous Prussian Field General's - Helmuth Von Moltke - quote, which, over time, has morphed into: "No plan survives contact with the enemy."

 

[BlueTrain]

Almost any kind of music can be made popular by increasing the sound level, giving it a pounding beat and dressing the musicians in clothes most people only wear to clean out the garage, hence the term garage band. It even helps a little if the audience has to stand for the whole performance. Flashing light, smoke and huge video screens add to the experience. It may only work for Western music, though, but that covers half the world. Ravi Shankar would probably have said it works for any music.

Anyone remember the "Hooked on Classics" series of recordings from 30 some years ago?

Alternatively, if it isn't popular music, then what is it?

 

[LizzieMaine]

You could make an argument that "popular music" in the exactlng sense simply means "music of the people," as opposed to music produced on commission for the aristocracy. It doesn't mean that the music is necessarily "popular" in the sense that the majority of people like it, simply that it arises spontaneously without being cultivated. That kind of definition meant more in the days when aristocrats kept musicians and composers like pets, but I think it's the origin of the term.

Today, it's simply used in its broadest sense to apply to any form of music that isn't "classical." Kazoo bands, musical saw players, Death Metal, Slim Whitman, Thelonious Monk, and Freddie Fisher's Schnickelfritzers are all "popular music" in that sense, even if they aren't all that "popular."

 

[vitanola]

Today, it's simply used in its broadest sense to apply to any form of music that isn't "classical." Kazoo bands, musical saw players, Death Metal, Slim Whitman, Thelonious Monk, and Freddie Fisher's Schnickelfritzers are all "popular music" in that sense, even if they aren't all that "popular."

And why do you disparage kazoo bands, Miss Maine?

 

[LizzieMaine]

It's so hard to keep them in tune.

 

[BlueTrain]

Well, "music of the people" is generally thought of as folk music and "real" folk music may or may not be popular and it may or may not be any good, either. The so-called folk music popularity beginning in the late 1950s had its roots far in the past but it's questionable whether or not it was really folk music. The fact that many folk musicians and groups of that era were decidedly left-wing and thus identified with "the people," some of them anyway, confuses the issue.

I happen to like European folk music, especially that of the German-speaking areas, as well as Czech and Slovenian. Even there, it has to be label "real" folk music, which I believe is written as "Echte Volksmusik."