Comments on: Funny Bones, 1918 http://www.keepapitchinin.org/2009/04/11/funny-bones-1918/ Where our past is never very long ago Sat, 18 May 2013 21:23:05 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Mark B. http://www.keepapitchinin.org/2009/04/11/funny-bones-1918/comment-page-1/#comment-9219 Mark B. Sat, 11 Apr 2009 21:29:20 +0000 http://www.keepapitchinin.org/?p=564#comment-9219 Good question, Ardis.

I just tried that search, Ardis, and the results weren’t that interesting. I have no idea why anyone would be searching those terms.

(I just tried to find another, somewhat more interesting, comment I made on an immigration thread a few years ago at another blog, but the google searches I tried all led (or, in the spirit of this threadjack, should I write “lead”?) me to every OB/GYN in the world named Mark.)

]]> By: Ardis E. Parshall http://www.keepapitchinin.org/2009/04/11/funny-bones-1918/comment-page-1/#comment-9211 Ardis E. Parshall Sat, 11 Apr 2009 20:10:11 +0000 http://www.keepapitchinin.org/?p=564#comment-9211 That reminds me, Mark — one of the repeated google searches that brings people to Keepa is “mark b. lay lie” — what’s that all about, do you suppose?

]]> By: Mark B. http://www.keepapitchinin.org/2009/04/11/funny-bones-1918/comment-page-1/#comment-9210 Mark B. Sat, 11 Apr 2009 20:04:16 +0000 http://www.keepapitchinin.org/?p=564#comment-9210 Nothing like making a hen joke with a play on the verbs lay and lie.

Could people conjugate them back then, or were they just as ignorant of grammar as modern folk?

]]> By: bfwebster http://www.keepapitchinin.org/2009/04/11/funny-bones-1918/comment-page-1/#comment-9206 bfwebster Sat, 11 Apr 2009 18:54:42 +0000 http://www.keepapitchinin.org/?p=564#comment-9206 Man, oh man! Some of those have a real bite to them. Great list again, Ardis. ..bruce..

]]> By: Ardis E. Parshall http://www.keepapitchinin.org/2009/04/11/funny-bones-1918/comment-page-1/#comment-9199 Ardis E. Parshall Sat, 11 Apr 2009 17:23:59 +0000 http://www.keepapitchinin.org/?p=564#comment-9199 In American colonial days, Coffinberry, people did indeed use their knives as an all-purpose eating utensil, along with their fingers. Forks, when available, generally had only two tines and were used for spearing and stabbing, not for genteeling lifting mouthfuls, and spoons were generally reserved for teacups and cooking pots. But you had to have a knife because meat was such a staple in the diet, so you used it however it was most helpful. That old way of eating hung on in rural or lower class or poorer regions long after “table manners” became a fixture in middle-class society.

So yeah, there’s a class distinction thing going on in that particular joke.

]]> By: Coffinberry http://www.keepapitchinin.org/2009/04/11/funny-bones-1918/comment-page-1/#comment-9197 Coffinberry Sat, 11 Apr 2009 17:03:19 +0000 http://www.keepapitchinin.org/?p=564#comment-9197 “In Chicago” reminds me of an old rhyme my momma taught me:

I eat my peas with honey–
I’ve done it all my life.
You may think it’s funny,
But it keeps ‘em on my knife.

This rhyme never did make sense to me. Did people really use knives to eat peas? Is there a class-distinction joke going on here?

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