|
|
|
Jewish World Review May 26, 2005 / 17 Iyar, 5765 What's the origin of ‘Open, sesame’; origin of song ‘Pancho and Lefty’; why does state field on the Internet have a scroll bar and not a text box? By Jeff Elder
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Q: I have an almost 3-year-old boy who likes to shout "OPEN SESAME!"
at automatic doors before we walk through them. As I was eating
sesame crackers the other night, I wondered "What's the connection?"
And, while I am on a train of thought, how did "Sesame Street" get
its name? — Dru Quarles
A: And when he came to the aforesaid rock and to the tree whereon
Ali Baba had hidden himself, and he had made sure of the door he
cried in great joy, 'Open, sesame!'
"The portal yawned wide at once and Kasim went within and saw the
piles of jewels and treasures lying ranged all around, and as soon
as he stood amongst them the door shut after him, as wont to do."
Welcome into the robbers' cave in "Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves." You
are now inside the famous collection of medieval Arabian folk tales
known as "The Arabian Nights." Also known as "The Thousand and One
Nights," the stories took shape over six centuries, borrowing some
from Persian and Indian influences.
Sinbad the Sailor is often included in these stories, but without
the great, stop-motion special effects of the Ray Harryhausen
movies. (Remember Sinbad's cinematic sword fights against the
skeletons?) Why was "open sesame" the magic command to open the
robbers' treasure cave?
Well, sesame is a crucial part of Middle Eastern cuisine, and has
been cultivated since antiquity for its seeds. In ancient times
sesame was said to possess near-mystical healing powers. But today
sesame is so common — in the Mideast and elsewhere — that including
the word in a magic spell is almost a joke. Sort of like magic beans
or flying on a broom.
"It's a homely item — which makes its magical property somewhat
comical. I think that's the idea," says Dan Beaumont. The associate
professor of Arabic language and literature at the University of
Rochester in New York has written about "The Arabian Nights."
"Open sesame" is also just fun to say. Ask any 3-year-old. (Of
course, Popeye yelled, "Open, says me!" And there's a whole 'nother
school of 3-year-olds who follow that.) The thieves also closed the
door by shouting "Shut sesame!" in many versions of "Ali Baba and
the 40 Thieves."
But I don't know if you want your 3-year-old introduced to that
tradition.
You don't need him yelling comin' and goin'.
"Sesame Street" got its name from kids, according to an article in
the American Psychological Association's Monitor on Psychology.
Show consultant Virginia Schone asked kids at a day-care center to
think up names for a show set on a street. They came up with it, and
no one at Children's Television Workshop could do better.
Q: Townes Van Zandt wrote the song "Pancho and Lefty." In an
interview prior to his death, he claimed Pancho was not Pancho
Villa. This seems unlikely, and he never mumbled anything about
Lefty. Who then were Pancho and Lefty? — Jim Chamberlin
A: "Pancho and Lefty," a No. 1 country hit for Willie Nelson and
Merle Haggard in 1983, begins with the poetic lines:
Was gonna keep you free and clean
Now you wear your skin like iron
And your breath's as hard as kerosene
Van Zandt did say that when he wrote the song he remembered thinking
to himself that the Pancho in the song was not Pancho Villa. And
it's not even clear from the lyrics if Pancho and Lefty ever met.
Van Zandt's close friend, songwriter Steve Earle, liked to joke that
the song is about "Billy Graham and the Guru Maharaji." But Earle
also said the opening verse above is about the hard, rambling life
that Van Zandt himself led.
It's simply not clear exactly who the characters are, or what the
connection between them is. Yet the song created a lasting image and
emotion. Perhaps its very lack of a linear story or clear-cut
meaning helped it achieve some of its moody poetry.
Earle has said he'd "stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table in my cowboy
boots" to declare Van Zandt the greatest songwriter in the world.
Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Lucinda Williams, and Emmy Lou Harris
also revere his work.
In 1997, he died of a heart attack at 52 after struggling with
clinical depression and years of drinking and drug abuse. He died on
New Year's Day, the same day as his idol, Hank Williams.
In a way, the chorus of "Pancho and Lefty" seemed to portray his
struggle to flee a sad end:
They could've had him any day
They only let him slip away
Out of kindness, I suppose.
Q: Why, when you're filling out a form for your address on the
Internet, it's assumed that you know your street name and your
city's name, yet all of a sudden it's assumed that you're an idiot
and don't know what the abbreviation for your state is? So you have
to pick up the mouse to scroll way down to find your state on a
list? —David Brown
A: Hey, just be glad we don't live in Cheyenne, David. They REALLY
gotta scroll way down that list to find Wyoming.
The Web masters we talked to said putting all the states on a scroll
list like that limits our choices to 50. It locks in that variable,
and gives them one less thing to worry about in maintaining the
database.
But if you left a blank for the state, people would put in all kinds
of things. Take our Wyoming example. Some folks would put in Wyo.
Others would put in WY. Others would spell out Wyoming — and some
would misspell it. So all of a sudden you have all kinds of
variables to figure out.
The good news is, on scroll lists like that sometimes you can type
the first letter of the word you want. Hitting W takes you to
Washington, and you don't have to scroll far.
2. What state claims in a well-known tourist campaign: "(Blank) is
for lovers"?
3. True or false: Camilla Parker Bowles is three years older than
Prince Charles.
4. What great doo-wop song begins: "Why do birds sing so gay?"
5. With whom is Tom Cruise now involved?
6. In what Shakespeare play do confirmed bachelor Benedick and
sharp-tongued Beatrice spar their way to romance?
ANSWERS: 1. "To have And Have Not" 2. Virginia 3. False, she is 16
months older than he is. 4. "Why Do Fools Fall In Love." 5. Katie
Holmes 6. "Much Ado About Nothing."
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Jeff Elder is a columnist for The Charlotte Observer. Comment or try to stump him by clicking here. If you send him a great question, he'll send you a Glad You Asked T-shirt. © 2005, The Charlotte Observer Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services. |
Arnold Ahlert | |||||||||||
