tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211251.post3284334124793904271..comments2024-01-08T19:49:13.932+00:00Comments on Froogville: My favourite punFrooghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06738623732860210935noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211251.post-17610162857361263332009-12-21T19:23:46.301+00:002009-12-21T19:23:46.301+00:00Wonderful job on the Pynchon. Reading his Big Book...Wonderful job on the Pynchon. Reading his Big Books is a lot like wandering through an orchard at the peak moment of the growing season -- you keep meaning to revisit something (like the phrase Moonie picked up on) which diverted your attention, but in the meantime there's this other little tasty bit here, and ooooh, look over thataway... And yet they're SO Big, it's hard to work up the enthusiasm for trying one of them all over again.JEShttp://johnesimpson.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211251.post-46521341957966199912009-12-21T15:56:00.665+00:002009-12-21T15:56:00.665+00:00'You'? I meant 'yon', of course -...'You'? I meant 'yon', of course - I think you need that, to get the <i>million</i>.Frooghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06738623732860210935noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211251.post-16426597227417667702009-12-21T15:54:55.123+00:002009-12-21T15:54:55.123+00:00I replied to Moonrat by e-mail a couple of days ag...I replied to Moonrat by e-mail a couple of days ago, since I couldn't bear to think of the sleepless nights she might suffer whilst struggling to work out these confounded puns(and I was temporarily locked out of my Blogger comments).<br /> <br />"A small thing, but mine own" (or variant, "A poor thing, but mine own") is a fairly ubiquitous phrase in British English, thought to have originated from Shakespeare (in <i>As You Like It</i>, in the multiple wedding scene at the end, Touchstone the clown says that his country lass is "an ill-favour'd thing, but mine own"). Minoan is the name given to the ancient civilization of Crete, named after the legendary King Minos who kept the Minotaur in the Labyrinth beneath his palace at Knossos.<br /> <br />Pynchon was presumably aping <i>Fifty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong</i>, a popular song of the 1920s (I believe Sophie Tucker recorded it; now that I have proper YouTube access back, I may have to try and dig that up). It looks as if he was going for <i>Forty million</i> ("For De Mille, you fur henchmen..."), though. I wonder if he just misremembered the song title. Or if he preferred the pun this way. Or if even his ingenuity was stumped by <i>Fifty million</i>.<br /><br />I had recalled the song as being primarily a paean to drink, but I've since checked the lyrics online and in fact it is praising the French for their free-and-easy attitude and effortless stylishness in.... food, wine, sex, fashion, you name it.Frooghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06738623732860210935noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211251.post-89623695882569678672009-12-17T22:06:12.623+00:002009-12-17T22:06:12.623+00:00fyi my word verification was "stinkwor" ...fyi my word verification was "stinkwor" which i think obviously means i'm a "stink"er at "wor"dgamesmoonrathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06294151043419378509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211251.post-756684363128843682009-12-17T22:05:27.705+00:002009-12-17T22:05:27.705+00:00i dont get itttt. i always need these things expla...i dont get itttt. i always need these things explained to me. <br /><br />there's a 5-page build-up to a pun in gravity's rainbow that ends: "For DeMille, fur henchmen can't be rowing." Someone really needed to explain that to me, too.moonrathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06294151043419378509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211251.post-65608998643806218352009-12-17T13:17:48.899+00:002009-12-17T13:17:48.899+00:00I'm not sure that the pun improves with age......I'm not sure that the pun improves with age... .The Nagnoreply@blogger.com