Re: Macaroni, Kangaroos, and Lord North
Camille Scaysbrook (verona_beach@geocities.com)
Wed, 16 Jun 1999 15:37:51 +1000
Well, I don't know which explanation to believe here! Though I like your
Dad's angle I think the macaroni-as-slang-for-fashion may be the answer
here if we're going the Ockham's Razor route (i.e. the shortest route from
a to b). I'm always puzzled (but delighted) to learn what a well known folk
song Waltzing Matilda is - seeing half of Australians probably understand
its storyline little more than anyone from overseas. I guess ballads,
stories told in song, will never go out of style.
Camille
verona_beach@geocities.com
@ THE ARTS HOLE http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Theater/6442
@ THE INVERTED FOREST http://www.angelfire.com/pa/invertedforest
> Camille's recent posts on Waltzing Matilda were of great interest to me,
the
> daughter of the man who sings only rarely, and when he does sing, he
sings
> but three songs in the rumbling voice of my dreams: Amazing Grace,
> Edelweiss, and Waltzing Matilda.
>
> American that I am, I never knew, and neither did my father, what
Waltzing
> Matilda was about. So when Camille posted her quick study on Waltzing
> Matilda, I forwarded it to my old man. My Father. He who knows all.
> Better known as Pops. And, historian that he is, he felt compelled to
> answer Camille's question about Yankee Doodle's Macaroni:
>
> "Good on Billabong. My guess on the feather in Y>D>'s cap is that
represents
>
> the kind of symbol of nobility that such decorations connote. Thus he was
> fancying himself up to mock the English [esp. Lord North, the P.M.], but
he
> called it macaroni, that is, a kind of base, common food-pasta is-and
this
> was meant to indicate just how much stock the Yankee Colonials put in
> feathers and such noble symbols, for they intended to eat it all up. And
we
> did. At Yorktown."
>
> So thanks, Camille...
>
> Regards,
> Cecilia.
>
>