OK. So, I've been controlling myself for days now, but I can't shake a ludicrous image out of my head. I must pass it along, or it will be with me forever.
Liza Minnelli used to sing a song in her stage act which was written about the difficulties she had with others pronouncing her name. The song goes,
It's Liza with a Z, not Lisa with an S, cuz Lisa with an S goes ssss not zzzz;
It's lie instead of lee ...
And similarly regarding her surname.
Now, I find myself envisioning the great Gandhi doing a little dance on stage, singing,
In my youth I did partake of the substance commonly known as cannabis - primarily as hash, but also grass when it came my way. Not big time, and only in the company of friends who had it, but sometimes we had really 'big' parties.
One particular Christmas season, a friend had gained possession of a large flat by the sea that his family were planning to sell, and had allowed us use of it in the interim. So between Christmas Day (with family) and New Year's Eve ('proper' partying) some 5 - 10 of us spent all our time there, getting stoned.
And the only music we played that whole time was Donovan - "Mellow Yellow", "Season of the Witch", "First there is a mountain" and so on.
And one of our favourites was "Hurdy gurdy man", with the immortal line (or mondegreen - who remembers when you're stoned?) "roly poly, roly poly, roly poly, roly-poly/ Here comes the roly poly man he's singing songs... of love".
And my friend, bless him, could never hear this line wihtout, somehow, seeing Mahatma Gandhi roly-poly-ing along, singing songs. Given that Gandhi was lean as a rake, I cannot understand where this concatenation of images came from (probably from all those cannabinols), but ever since, I have rarely been able to think of Gandhi without humming "Here comes the hurdy gurdy man he's singing songs..."
BTW: Children, do not try this at home. Cannabis is a banned drug in most Western countries and illegal purchase and use is a strong indicator of tendencies to get involved in 'harder' drugs (which are, without reservation bad, bad, bad for you). If your country decriminalises, or heavens, even legalises, it, I recommend it highly, but not until then.
"Gandhi dancing" Totally unrelated, there used to be a term "gandy dancer" in railroading about a small car used by men repairing signals or track, which was operated by two men facing each other, alternately lifting and lowering an "H" shaped bar pivoted in the middle of the "H" to propel the car. As the men alternately rose and bent down, it looked a bit like some sort of dance. So the car was called a "gandy dancer". My dictionary does not mention the car, but I remember seeing them in use, and have seen them advertised for model railroads. The dictionary does say that there was a Gandy Manufacturing Company in Chicago.
Just punning a bit, Bill. The restaurant is, in fact, located in a renovated railroad station, so you're right on target. Although I did know it was a railroad term, I had forgotten the origin - thanks for the refresher!
<<The dictionary does say there is a Gandy Manufacturing Company in Chicago"
Gandy manufactured the picks, shovels, forks and lining bars(?) that were the tools of the trade of the Gandy Dancers: track maintenance men. (courtesy of google)
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