|
|
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 866
old hand
|
old hand
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 866 |
In reply to:
DREAR: Dreary, having nothing likely to provide cheer, comfort, or interest"
All true Ozzies know this one. Immortalised in the song "Pub With No Beer" by our very own C&W legend, Slim Dusty.
"It's lonesome away from your kindred and all
By the camp fire at night where the wild dingoes call,
But there's nothing so lonesome so morbid or drear
Than to stand in a bar of a pub with no beer.
Now the publican's anxious for the quota to come
There's a far away lock on the face of the bum
The maid's gone all cranky and the cook's acting queer
What a terrible place is a pub with no beer.
Then the stockman rides up with his dry dusty throat
He breasts up to the bar, pulls a wat from his coat,
But the smile on his face quickly turns to a sneer,
When the bar man said sadly the pub's got no beer.
Ther's a dog on the v'randa-h for his master he waits
But the boss is inside drinking wine with his mates
He hurries for cover and cringes in fear
It's no place for a dog round a pub with no beer.
Old Billy the blacksmith first time in his life
Has gone home cold sober to his darling wife,
He walks in the kitchen, she says you're early me dear,
But he breaks down and tells her the pub's got no beer.
Found these lyrics and the story behind the (1944) song at:
http://www.crosswinds.net/~watchorn/songs/pubwithnobeer.htm
stales
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605 |
Ah, the difference one letter can make! From caress to cares. 
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Dear Wordwind: The text I used as quoted by tsuwm had the word "drearest"
, which makes little sense. I found the orginal from tsuwm's citation, and found that the word should have been "dearest". I don't know how the error crept in. But the most probable explanation is a typo, though I don't see how it happened.
So any discussion of drear, or drearest is incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial, as Perry Mason used to say.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 866
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 866 |
Difficult to be "incompetent" (or, indeed, incontinent) in a pub with no beer! Unless of course Jack lives there, then fall down time comes around very soon.
stales
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
it could, just possibly, be the case that the typo is that of the gutenburg project (our only on-line ref.); i.e., they might have dropped the 'r' from drearest (more probable than adding an extraneous letter). I imagine that I got the citation from OED (i'll check), and it made sense to me that this MP would be complaining that a chief justice wasn't paying attention to his (the MP's) constituents' dreary or sad interests. indeed, what jackpudding would want to be so burdened? [of course if *I somehow added that extraneous letter...]
but I digress; I guess we'll just have to wait for someone to peruse the original source in order to settle our conundrum.
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,915
Posts229,843
Members9,197
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
0 members (),
335
guests, and
2
robots. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
