Couple more randomish things -- jingoism and cars

[xiphias]

It's not so much that Boston is pedestrian-friendly as that it is automobile-hostile.

I like that in a city.

I looked up the song from which we get the term "jingoism." The expression "hey jingo" is a medieval stage magician term of the same province as "hey presto" "Hey presto" is what you say while making something disappear, "hey jingo" is what you say when you make something appear.

I may start using this.

Anyway, "hey presto" therefore became used an expression of surprise or startlement. Eventually, "by jingo" began being used as a sort of mild oath.

This is the sense in which it is used in the chorus of "MacDermott's War Song".

Here's the song:

MacDermott's War Song

The "Dogs of War" are loose and the rugged Russian Bear,
All bent on blood and robbery has crawled out of his lair...
It seems a thrashing now and then, will never help to tame...
That brute, and so he's out upon the "same old game"...
The Lion did his best... to find him some excuse...
To crawl back to his den again. All efforts were no use...
He hunger'd for his victim. He's pleased when blood is shed...
But let us hope his crimes may all recoil on his own head...

Chorus:
We don't want to fight but by jingo if we do...
We've got the ships, we've got the men, and got the money too!
We've fought the Bear before... and while we're Britons true,
The Russians shall not have Constantinople...

The misdeeds of the Turks have been "spouted" through all lands,
But how about the Russians, can they show spotless hands?
They slaughtered well at Khiva, in Siberia icy cold.
How many subjects done to death we'll ne'er perhaps be told.
They butchered the Circassians, man, woman yes and child.
With cruelties their Generals their murderous hours beguiled,
And poor unhappy Poland their cruel yoke must bear,
While prayers for "Freedom and Revenge" go up into the air.

(Chorus)

May he who 'gan the quarrel soon have to bite the dust.
The Turk should be thrice armed for "he hath his quarrel just."
'Tis said that countless thousands should die through cruel war,
But let us hope most fervently ere long it shall be o'er.
Let them be warned: Old England is brave Old England still.
We've proved our might, we've claimed our right, and ever, ever will.
Should we have to draw the sword our way to victory we'll forge,
With the Battle cry of Britons, "Old England and St George!"

(Chorus)

So, anyway, I found sheet music for this song, and I've been playing it.

http://www.cyberussr.com/hcunn/q-jingo.html

It's a great song! After playing through it a couple times, I am now totally convinced that we Britons should definitely do a military intervention in Bulgaria in order to protect the Ottoman Empire against Tsarist Russian aggression! Even though the Turkish civil rights record is absolutely no better than the Tsarist one!

Comments

[ckd]

Have you read Terry Pratchett's Jingo yet?

[micheinnz.livejournal.com]

It scans (more or less) to the Battle Hymn of the Republic.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

The tune is actually somewhat bouncier and upbeat -- not that the Battle Hymn can't be bouncy and upbeat, but this is more so. But they're clearly the same genre of music.

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

Parts of Boston area really do facilitate foot traffic in significant ways. Cities that were built (or rebuilt) with cars in mind are fundamentally different. In Boston and Cambridge, houses are close together. Yards tend to be small, where they exist at all, and most of the green space is parks. Shops and schools and small businesses are near where people live - sometimes on the same block. Roads and parking are overcrowded and inconvenient, as people try to accomodate increasing car traffic by jamming in extra parking lots or service drives wherever they can fit.

Detroit, or Atlanta, or Los Angeles has residential areas that stretch for miles. They might be very pretty, but there's nothing there but houses and lawns and parking lots. To leave home and do anything, residents need to drive (children and the disabled need to be driven - inability to drive is much more of a disability there than it is here.) Even from a house at the edge of the development, there's a daunting amount of lawn to cross, and even more daunting parking lots and highways.