Hey you Yanks

[Lady Illusion]

Do you yanks like to whistle?

The Yankee Doodle Dandee jingle comes to mind...

Ours are all about whistling... maybe we don't know the words, but it makes our mouth muscles stronger

And why was he riding on a pony? Couldn't afford a horse?

What was wrong with using a donkey?

He stuck a feather in his hat, the queens do that here...

And he called it macaroni... now that's sad

okay, I'm bored LOL

 

[Teenage Venus]

Do you yanks like to whistle?

Not a lot - but some hum a bit when they get warmed up. (More frequent showers! maybe?

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Yankee Doodle was a derogotory song, sung to the tune of an old english drinking song. The colonials appropriated it for themselves, to turn mockery into something positive.

-Colly

 

[R. Richard]

Do you yanks like to whistle?

The Yankee Doodle Dandee jingle comes to mind...

Ours are all about whistling... maybe we don't know the words, but it makes our mouth muscles stronger

And why was he riding on a pony? Couldn't afford a horse?

What was wrong with using a donkey?

He stuck a feather in his hat, the queens do that here...

And he called it macaroni... now that's sad

okay, I'm bored LOL

Exactly why are you strengthening your mouth muscles?

We here in the colonies tend to operate on low budgets because of the rapacious greed of the crown, don't you know?

The feather came from a chicken that was abused by the occupying troops. It was a symblos of resistance and a warning of what would happen if the colonists fell into the hands of the occupiers.

The reference to 'macaroni' was a reference to the presence of Italian refugees, driven out of Italia by political trouble. Of course, they formed the only bright cultural spot in the rather gray and confused society of the crown.

If you have further problems in this area, feel free to ask.

 

[dee1124]

Actually, I've heard that the "macaroni" reference comes from pasta being very new and very cool in 18th century England, so for a while all new, cool things were called "macaroni."

 

[ferociouskittycat]

This is my goal.

To write a ditty that people will be talking about for centuries.

I can dream

 

[Weird Harold]

Actually, I've heard that the "macaroni" reference comes from pasta being very new and very cool in 18th century England, so for a while all new, cool things were called "macaroni."

I'm not sure about the relationship to pasta, but "Macaroni" was indeed a slang term for "stylish" or "cool" -- if in a somewhat sarcastic context.

 

[Virtual_Burlesque]

I'm not sure about the relationship to pasta, but "Macaroni" was indeed a slang term for "stylish" or "cool" -- if in a somewhat sarcastic context.

As usual, Weird Harold is correct.



[LINK to }--> The Revolutionary Era Macaronis


We all know of the 'macaroni and cheese' made famous by JL Kraft, and we know of the 'macaroni' reference in "Yankee Doodle", but there's more fascinating information about this fashion fad that would still be fresh in everyone's memory in 1776. James Boswell wrote about 'the Macaronis' in his "Life of Samuel Johnson" in 1773.

<snip>

By the 1750s it had become de rigeur for rich young men to tour Europe (especially Italy) in a 'Grand Tour'. Here they absorbed different cultures, ate different foods, studied art, drank heavily and chased young women. It was in many ways a rite of passage.

<snip>

Fashion changes are a history of gradual change (the length of the cuff, mentioned earlier) or one of reaction: short hair of the Puritans gave way to long hair of the Restoration. The Macaronis were a youthful reaction.

When these men returned to London, they brought the pasta dish 'macaroni' with them. To set themselves apart from the establishment, they began to wear outrageous costumes.


http://footguards.tripod.com/06ARTICLES/macaroni.jpg


The wig was worn with large side curls, and very high in front (up to 9" high), with almost a vestigial three-cornered hat perched on top. (This style actually was picked up by the ladies, and their hair reached enormous heights in the French court in the early 1780s when Ben Franklin was there). The Macaronis carried or wore nosegays of flowers (attached to the right lapel), wore tightly-fitting coats and short waistcoats with enormous buttons, and exquisitely thin shoes (we might today call them "Italian"), with huge buckles of gold or pinchbeck. They also affected a mincing gait, which actually might have been necessary with their delicate shoes, tight garments and top-heavy wigs. The presence of these 'exquisite young fops' did not please the older gentlemen… to say the least. You can well imagine the comments that were called out in the streets.

Because they were associated with 'foreign food', these dandies became known as 'The Macaronis'. The term may have been applied to them, or they may have adopted it themselves. At any rate, the first mention of them as such comes from 1764.

The bastion of the traditional English county look at this time was The Beefsteak Club. This was an establishment where the patrons (though wealthy) considered themselves as a down-to-earth, no-frills kind of people, with conservative clothes such as the rugged leather shoes and boots they wore. It was natural that there should be a 'Macaroni Club'. They were mercilessly lampooned both by satirists and caricaturists.

The macaronis and those who tried to copy them adopted what was most extreme in male fashion. Their outraged elders began calling anything that was new or outlandish 'macaroni'. For years, the word was a synonym for an overdressed young man on both sides of the Atlantic, so that Yankee Doodle, when he came riding into town on a pony, 'stuck a feather in his hat and called it macaroni'. The song originally parodied the rusticity of the Americans. Naturally they could not aspire to high fashion, and their attempts at such were thought of as ludicrous.

 

[Weird Harold]

As usual, Weird Harold is correct.



[LINK to }--> The Revolutionary Era Macaronis


...
Fashion changes are a history of gradual change (the length of the cuff, mentioned earlier) or one of reaction: short hair of the Puritans gave way to long hair of the Restoration. The Macaronis were a youthful reaction.

Thanks for the refresher course on the details. The "Macaronis" were in, a way, the 18th Century equivalent of Punk or Goth styles of today.