Expressions in Barks stories

creator of Duckburg and Scrooge McDuck

Postby Daniel73 » Sun Aug 06, 2006 2:45 pm

There are many interesting phrases and expressions in for example Barks stories. For example, in the story about parrot Joe from Singapore, Donald says: "Tabby! TABBY! What the Sam Hill AILS you? OW!" (7.3)

Here's some information about the expression "what the Sam Hill":

- - - - - - - - - -

SAM HILL

[Q] From Doug Hickey: “I have often heard in American movies and on television phrases like ‘What in the Sam Hill is going on?’ Or, ‘What the Sam Hill happened here?’ Or, some such exclamation. I have not been able to find the basis of this expression.”

[A] There is a story sometimes told (for example in Edwin Mitchell’s Encyclopedia of American Politics in 1946) that one Colonel Samuel Hill of Guilford, Connecticut, would often run for political office at some point in the early nineteenth century but always without success. Hence, “to run like Sam Hill” or “go like Sam Hill”. The problem is that nobody has found any trace of this monumentally unsuccessful candidate.

On the other hand, an article in the New England Magazine in December 1889 entitled Two Centuries and a Half in Guilford Connecticut mentioned that, “Between 1727 and 1752 Mr. Sam. Hill represented Guilford in forty-three out of forty-nine sessions of the Legislature, and when he was gathered to his fathers, his son Nathaniel reigned in his stead” and a footnote queried whether this might be the source of the “popular Connecticut adjuration to ‘Give ‘em Sam Hill’?” So the tale has long legs.

The expression has been known since the late 1830s. Despite the story, it seems to be no more than a personalised euphemism for “hell”.

- - - - - - - - - -

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-sam1.htm
Daniel73
Member
 
Posts: 313
Joined: Fri Jun 02, 2006 4:40 pm
Location: Netherlands

Postby Robb_K » Wed Aug 09, 2006 5:35 pm

Daniel73 wrote:There are many interesting phrases and expressions in for example Barks stories. For example, in the story about parrot Joe from Singapore, Donald says: "Tabby! TABBY! What the Sam Hill AILS you? OW!" (7.3)

Here's some information about the expression "what the Sam Hill":

- - - - - - - - - -

SAM HILL

[Q] From Doug Hickey: “I have often heard in American movies and on television phrases like ‘What in the Sam Hill is going on?’ Or, ‘What the Sam Hill happened here?’ Or, some such exclamation. I have not been able to find the basis of this expression.”

[A] There is a story sometimes told (for example in Edwin Mitchell’s Encyclopedia of American Politics in 1946) that one Colonel Samuel Hill of Guilford, Connecticut, would often run for political office at some point in the early nineteenth century but always without success. Hence, “to run like Sam Hill” or “go like Sam Hill”. The problem is that nobody has found any trace of this monumentally unsuccessful candidate.


http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-sam1.htm

Why then, aren't we also saying, "What the Harold Stassen!" ?
Robb_K
Member
 
Posts: 444
Joined: Thu Apr 13, 2006 2:35 pm

Postby copycat » Tue Oct 24, 2006 8:27 pm

From the DCML mailing list:

THE COLOR OF NEPHEWS

Dan Shane
Tue Aug 1 14:15:08 CEST 2006

DANIEL WROTE:

In panel 1.7 of the raffle turkey pet story (WDC 75), one of Donald's
nephews mentions his full name and possibly also the color of his cap: "The
blue streak you see next will be Huey Duck on his way to a raffle!"

AND I OFFER:

"Blue streak" is an American idiom that signifies anything moving at such
high speed to essentially appear as a blur, so it would not matter what
color clothing the individual was wearing. He would never be considered a
streak of any color but blue.


Dan

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://nafsk.se/pipermail/dcml/2006-August/024390.html

More information about the DCML mailing list
copycat
 

Postby Egg » Sat Oct 28, 2006 1:55 pm

About the blue streak.

In The Netherlands, "blue streak" is literally translated als "blauwe schicht". Containing the word blue, even though the Dutch don't have such a expression. For Dutch people the blue ("blauwe") does mean a blue colour.
Today, on the Dutch forum, someone wrote:
Caspar wrote:Dit las ik in DD album 42, Donald Duck als dagdromer:
"Die blauwe schicht die jullie zo langs zieen flitsen is Kwik Duck op weg naar de loterij!"

Kwik is dus blauw."

http://forum.mcduck.nl/viewtopic.php?pid=43777#p43777

I'm curious how other countries have used the "blue streak".
Egg
Member
 
Posts: 550
Joined: Fri Apr 14, 2006 11:19 am

Postby Egg » Sat Nov 04, 2006 11:36 pm

The story where Donald has a musical ambition to get a tv station audition, contains references to several songs. (WDC 165)

In panel 5.4, Donald sings "Who threw the overshoes in Missus Leary's hash?"
The reference to overshoes and hash is a riff on a turn-of-the-century pop song, "Who Threw The Overalls in Mrs. Murphy's Chowder" by George L. Giefer, c. 1898. According to Wikipedia, the song survives primarily (slightly corrupted) as a repeated children's chant "Who put the overalls in Mrs. Murphy's chowder?/Nobody answered so we asked a little louder." Thus Donald sings the line correctly by using the original word "threw".

Chowder is any of a variety of soups, enriched with salt pork fatback and thickened with flour, or more traditionally with crushed ship biscuit or saltine crackers, and milk.
Hash is a mixture of beef (often leftovers of corned beef or roast beef), onions, potatoes, and spices that are mashed together into a coarse, chunky paste and then cooked either alone, or with other ingredients.

Information taken from topic 'Barks quote quiz' and Wikipedia.
http://bb.mcdrake.nl/engdisney/viewtopic.php?p=1719#p1719 (2006-11-01, ramapith)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrs._Murphy%27s_Chowder (2006-11-04)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_%28food%29 (2006-11-04)

Full lyrics of ''Who Threw The Overalls in Mrs. Murphy's Chowder":

- - - - - - - -

WHO THREW THE OVERALLS IN MRS. MURPHY'S CHOWDER ?
(George Giefer)
Bing Crosby - 1956

Mrs. Murphy gave a party just about a week ago.
Everything was plentiful, The Murphys, they're not slow.
They treated us like gentlemen, we tried to act the same,
If it weren't for what happened...Well, it was a doggone shame.

When Mrs. Murphy dished the chowder out, she fainted on the spot.
She found a pair of overalls at the bottom of the pot.
McGinty, he got roaring mad, his eyes were bulging out,
He jumped onto the piano and loudly he did shout......

"Who threw the overalls in Mrs. Murphy's chowder?"
Nobody spoke, so he shouted all the louder,
"It's a rotten trick that's true, I can lick the drip that threw
The overalls in Mrs. Murphy's chowder."

They dragged the pants from out the soup and laid them on the floor.
Each man swore upon his life, he'd ne'er seen them before.
They were plastered up with mortar and had patches on the knee,
They'd had their many ups and downs as we could plainly see.

And when Mrs. Murphy, she came to, she b'gan to cry and pout,
She'd put them in the wash that day and forgot to pull them out.
McGinty, he excused himself for what he said that night,
So we put music to the words and sang with all our might....

"Who threw the overalls in Mrs. Murphy's chowder?"
Nobody spoke, so we shouted all the louder,
"It's a rotten trick that's true, and we'll lick the drip that threw
The overalls in Mrs. Murphy's chowder."

- - - - - - - -
(As contributed to International Lyrics Playground by Bette Carl - May 2002)
http://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs ... wder.shtml
- - - - - - - -

*EDIT* boardlinking updated to McDrake
Last edited by Egg on Sat Feb 10, 2007 2:20 am, edited 1 time in total.
Egg
Member
 
Posts: 550
Joined: Fri Apr 14, 2006 11:19 am

Postby Egg » Sat Nov 04, 2006 11:47 pm

Continuation of my previous posting about the story where Donald has a musical ambition to get a tv station audition. (WDC 165)

Question (for me) is if "Missus Leary" in Donald's "Who threw the overshoes in Missus Leary's hash?" could derive from Mrs. O'Leary in another song, 'A Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight', also known as 'Old Mother Leary', c. 1871.
The different spelling of "Leary" and "O'Leary" appears to be a slight variation of the same name, within the song itself.

Mrs O'Leary refers to Catherine O'Leary (also known as Cate O'Leary) (b. circa 1827, d. 1895). She was an an Irish immigrant living in Chicago, Illinois in the 1870s. On the evening of October 8, 1871, a fire started in her barn which went on to burn a large percentage of the city, an event known as the Great Chicago Fire. Although for many years it was believed that the fire began with the O'Learys' cow knocking over a lantern, more recent theories posit that humans were involved in the start of the fire.
However, the story of Mrs. O'Leary's Cow has garnered the attention and imagination of generations as the cause of the fire. Popular culture have referred to the story with the expectation that the populace will understand the reference.
Within days of the fire, people were singing the now-familiar, but anonymous song 'A Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight'.

Information taken from topic 'Barks quote quiz' and Wikipedia.
http://bb.mcdrake.nl/engdisney/viewtopi ... 1705#p1705 (2006-10-30, Robb_K)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_O%27Leary

Full lyrics of 'A Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight':

- - - - - - - -

Old Mother Leary
(or "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow" or
"There'll be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight")
Late one night
When we were all in bed
Old Mother Leary
Left a lantern in the shed

And when the cow kicked it over,
She winked her eye and said,
"There’ll be a hot time
In the old town, tonight."

Spoken:
"FIRE, FIRE, FIRE!" 5 nights ago,
when we were all in bed
Old Mrs. Leary left the lantern in the shed
and when the cow kicked it over,
she winked her eye and said
it'll be a hot time, in the old town, tonight!
FIRE FIRE FIRE!

4 nights ago,
when we were all in bed
Old Mrs. Leary left the lantern in the shed
and when the cow kicked it over,
she winked her eye and said
it'll be a hot time, in the old town, tonight!
FIRE FIRE FIRE!

3 nights ago,
when we were all in bed
Old Mrs. Leary left the lantern in the shed
and when the cow kicked it over,
she winked her eye and said
it'll be a hot time, in the old town, tonight!
FIRE FIRE FIRE!

2 nights ago,
when we were all in bed
Old Mrs. Leary left the lantern in the shed
and when the cow kicked it over,
she winked her eye and said
it'll be a hot time, in the old town, tonight!
FIRE FIRE FIRE

1 night ago,
when we were all in bed
Old Mrs. Leary left the lantern in the shed
and when the cow kicked it over,
she winked her eye and said
it'll be a hot time, in the old town, tonight!

FIRE FIRE FIRE!<

- - - - - - - -
http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/child ... _Leary.htm
- - - - - - - -

Questions:
Is there a connection between Donald's "Missus Leary" and the "Mrs. (O')Leary" of this song? I'm uncertain whether Robb_K and Ramapith differ or agree about this point.

Other suggestions, comments, etc., are also welcome.

*EDIT* boardlinking updated to McDrake
Last edited by Egg on Sat Feb 10, 2007 2:20 am, edited 1 time in total.
Egg
Member
 
Posts: 550
Joined: Fri Apr 14, 2006 11:19 am

Postby Egg » Mon Nov 06, 2006 1:06 am

Egg wrote:Questions:
Is there a connection between Donald's "Missus Leary" and the "Mrs. (O')Leary" of this song? I'm uncertain whether Robb_K and Ramapith differ or agree about this point.

Yesterday, Robb_K answered:
- - - - - - - -
I'm SURE that Barks' use of Ms. "Leary" was actually meant to be a hick's (bumpkin's) way of saying O'Leary (" -- 'Leary) in which the O isn't sounded.
- - - - - - - -
http://bb.mcdrake.nl/engdisney/viewtopi ... 1750#p1750 (2006-11-05, Robb_K)

(Moderation: Date corrected. -- Daniel73.)

[*EDIT* boardlinking updated to McDrake - Daniel73]
Last edited by Egg on Sat Feb 10, 2007 2:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
Egg
Member
 
Posts: 550
Joined: Fri Apr 14, 2006 11:19 am

Postby Egg » Mon Dec 04, 2006 3:20 pm

The ten-pager of WDC 108, in which Donald is trying to catch a frog, so he can have an inexpensive meal of frogs legs, contains a reference to a "tule bog".
What is a tule bog?

The full sentence is: "Hop in, infants! We're going out to cousin Gus's tule bog!" (2.4)
Egg
Member
 
Posts: 550
Joined: Fri Apr 14, 2006 11:19 am


Return to Carl Barks

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest

cron