sovay: (Sydney Carton)
sovay ([personal profile] sovay) wrote2024-12-06 04:22 pm

Than the crossties in the railway or the stars in the skies

On leaving the house this afternoon to drive [personal profile] spatch to work, I discovered that our block on both sides of the street has been flyered with no-parking signs on account of impending construction. Considering that I have pulled through this week on irregular nights of very little sleep to none at all, I am seriously considering just dynamiting the road to render it impassable and spending the next week in bed.

Meanwhile our normally uneventful upstairs neighbors spent the middle of the day audibly singing along to the entirety of Wicked (2024) and then switched to something with heavy bass, which put napping out of the question. I'm not upset at them per se, I would just have been more braced for it in the evening. (Not everyone's from Boston, John.)

I sincerely thought I had learned the uncensored lyrics of "Gee, Officer Krupke" from the original 1957 Broadway cast recording of West Side Story which I grew up listening to, but I just played the song again and the verse in question, while not as badly bowdlerized as in the 1961 film, has in fact been slightly cleaned up for Columbia Records: Dear kindly social worker / They say go earn some dough / Like be a soda jerker / Which means like be a schmo. I must have heard the original rhyme of earn a buck with be a schmuck in the high school stage production I saw in 1996. In any case it seems to have permanently fossilized the phrase soda jerker with schmuck in my mind, since every time I read it on the page I get the Jets stuck in my head. This does not happen with soda jerk, presumably because of the difference in scansion.

I am entertained that after I finally went to the trouble this spring of tracking down a secondhand first edition of Theodore Strauss' Moonrise (1946) because it was dead out of print, it was just reprinted for the first time in decades. I should obviously complain about the unavailability of more film noir source novels. Maybe I can call the nonexistent original of Eric Ambler's The October Man (1947) into being.

The slope of our street puts it out too soon, but the sunset was fuchsia and gold.
selkie: (Default)

[personal profile] selkie 2024-12-07 01:58 am (UTC)(link)
Buck and schmuck, which are also the words at our house, are attested here! https://www.westsidestory.com/gee-officer-krupke So maybe it was on the vinyl?

Deep down inside me, there is good!
gwynnega: (books poisoninjest)

[personal profile] gwynnega 2024-12-07 05:04 am (UTC)(link)
Impending construction, UGH.

Good job at conjuring up that novel reprint, though!
thistleingrey: (Default)

[personal profile] thistleingrey 2024-12-07 05:42 am (UTC)(link)
our block on both sides of the street has been flyered with no-parking signs on account of impending construction

Oh noooo.
teenybuffalo: (Default)

[personal profile] teenybuffalo 2024-12-07 06:41 am (UTC)(link)
I am always happy to be reminded of that song. "Gee, Officer Krupke, krup you!" is much funnier than it would be if they'd actually said the fuck word. This is my controversial yet brave opinion.
imagine_that: (Default)

[personal profile] imagine_that 2024-12-10 06:46 pm (UTC)(link)
I keep meaning to get copies of those Sondheim lyrics books. This just increased my desire. :)

I always loved the "Krup you!" line and I've had that debate over whether they should have stuck to the swear or not. Nice to hear how the original debate went.
imagine_that: (Default)

[personal profile] imagine_that 2024-12-11 03:05 am (UTC)(link)
I had always heard that the most "Sondheim" lyrics in that show were actually Bernstein - particularly that song. This is probably part of what they meant. :)

And yes, one should definitely be able to ship schmucks across state lines. ;)
ethelmay: (Default)

[personal profile] ethelmay 2024-12-07 08:39 am (UTC)(link)
I always mix up which minced oath goes where.
thisbluespirit: (spooks - harry/ruth + bench)

[personal profile] thisbluespirit 2024-12-07 10:35 am (UTC)(link)
I am seriously considering just dynamiting the road to render it impassable and spending the next week in bed.

Honestly, I think at this point, they're just asking you to; demanding even. They'll probably be disappointed if you don't.

*hugs*

I am entertained that after I finally went to the trouble this spring of tracking down a secondhand first edition of Theodore Strauss' Moonrise (1946) because it was dead out of print, it was just reprinted for the first time in decades. I should obviously complain about the unavailability of more film noir source novels. Maybe I can call the nonexistent original of Eric Ambler's The October Man (1947) into being.

It's worth a try!