Word: funning
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...pleased with last week's account of Capitol doings? Pleased is too mild a word. I was foaming over with delight; at the victory for the Republocrats, but even more so by your absorbing, fun-provoking story of the fracas. How did we ever manage before TIME arrived on the scene...
Carl Bellman was an amiable, unpractical tosspot who spent most of his life in government sinecures, under the patronage of art-loving, fun-loving King Gustavus III. When the King was murdered. Bellman lost his last job, was put in debtors' prison, got out just in time for a last party before he died. Bellman played the lute, consciously or unconsciously drew upon Bach, Mozart, Scarlatti for melodies. He seldom wrote a song down, let his friends transcribe, collect and publish part of his output. The "Last of the Troubadours" sang of tavern life, of trips to the country...
Aviator Earhart was still relatively unskilled in flying when she became famous as an airwoman. Commercial flights and publicity ventures gave her experience, helped pay for the longer hops she took for the fun of it. She never quite broke even, though her extracurricular activities ranged from being a peripatetic faculty member of Purdue, to designing women's shirts with tails ample enough to let their wearers stand decently on their heads. A feminist (her husband "cannot remember introducing her even once as Mrs. Putnam") she was still feminine (her thought going through a thunderstorm over the Gulf...
...Penalty for less bathing suit: $18 fine. Women cannot lie down on Spanish beaches, and men must wear tops as well as trunks. Last year Pugilist Paolino Uzcudun tried to beat the law by swimming in a dinner suit and top hat, was hauled off to court for making fun of the rules, released when he proved there was no law forbidding swimming in evening clothes...
Thus last week sang Willie Long Bone, 71-year-old Delaware Indian, perched on a high stool, pounding a deerskin drum. Willie Long Bone sang for fun, but his audience, a seminar of the Linguistic Institute of America convened on the University of Michigan campus, plied their pencils feverishly, transcribing his words into phonetic symbols. Then for their benefit Willie translated his songs and long, chanted stories into English...