01:23 - 13.03.06
surfing
It was the Australians actually. You see, even their newspapers use words in unique ways that leave me running for a lexicon of their language - a dictionary that features their local or national English dialects. Sometimes it turns out the aberrant phrase or word is of British origin, but hasn't made it west across the Altantic. Take "Boffin" for example. It took several uses of that particular word in stories before I finally guessed that it probably was a slang term for "Scientist". As it turns out, the origins of the word came from Great Britain. It originally was specific to a researcher of a military persuasion. In Australia it is applied more liberally to anyone doing research. Fine I can deal with that.
In today's case, the phrase that sent me researching for a couple of hours was from a headline about the North Korean leader Kim Jong-II. Now he already has a very unique relationship with the real world, so the extra confusion made me want to be certain that I understood the slang being applied to his activities before I read any further. The weird thing was that the term used was one I knew had originated in the US Hip Hop culture in the 1990's. I could even remember the first time I ever heard it sung. It flowed out mellifluously from the lips of none other than Will Smith. My first reaction to the phrase was "Huh?". As were my second and subsequent attempts at understanding what he was trying to convey. The term sounded as though it might deal with something slightly off-colour or insulting, but given Mr Smith's well known love of word play I decided not to take offense until I could figure out exactly what he was saying. The term? "Gettin Jiggy wid it". Harrumph, well yes of course. It means really getting excited or involved in something. The fact that the phrase has still not made it into the halls of the industry I work in means there is likely another layer of meaning - a double entendre - that I haven't figured out. One that isn't quite so, ummm, uplifting in it's message. I mean, corporate theft of the buzzwords of the mainstream youth culture are almost a given. Makes them seem "with it" don't you know. Whatever.
When I started my search I thought it would be a quick and simple matter. Right - Mr Mercury is retrograde remember. Nothing about communication is simple. Check it once, check it twice, and then check it once again - that's what my favorite astrologer was emphasizing when he prepared last week's videocast. The strangest sites came first in my google search. First listing - a chess players' chat room. Um, sure thing. One of the members had used the term and then been forced to define it for other participants. Well, that actually made sense, but it wasn't the authoritative definition I wanted. Next up was a blog from an IBM employee. Alright. He was talking about it in reference to a presentation he had made at the annual Austin Tx SXSW conference a year ago. Ok fine. Still not an official definition. Third website was maintained by an individual who seems downright fascinating just by the options offered on his site. In addition to his own dictionary, there were real time graphics and statistics for lunar and solar manifestations including the upcoming full moon/penumbral eclipse, a linux page, and a free Role Playing Game that looked interesting too. Still not what I wanted, but I must admit I was quite diverted for a while.
I finally got what I wanted in one of the regular on-line dictionaries that were listed after those first few sites. For whatever reason, as I was reading that offering, I seemed to hear the phrase "hey nonny nonny" coming out of the computer. Ok now things were getting surreal, but at least I was still getting jiggy wid it - right? Now for one thing that phrase has something to do with a nickname I had when I was younger. There was a song - or two - in the '60's that had that phrase embedded in it. My parents had some of the Limeliters and Kingston Trio albums and I'm certain I recall it in some of their songs for starters. My sisters and I used to love dancing to their music. Well ok, so we didn't know any better. I still love their songs, all joking aside. A search on oldie lyrics came up with one post war satire - Debts - by Irving Berlin and Sh-boom by the Crew Cuts. I knew that still wasn't the original song nor was this, Of Thee I Sing or the lyrics from the Disney movie "Pocahontas". A little voice kept saying "ask William Shatner". Ok so maybe it wasn't a little voice, but it was trying to recall where I had first seen the lyrics that brought me to that point. You see Mr. "born in Montreal, Canada" William Shatner was for a time, a Shakespearean actor. Oh yeah. Much Ado About Nothing. Had I stopped there I would have been fine, but I recalled seeing a quick clip of Mr Shatner singing on a new album and he was quite funny. I thought I would try to find a clip of him singing the original Hey Nonny Nonny lyrics. No such luck, but I did enjoy this clip of his rendition of Lucy In the Sky with Diamonds and I must admit to speechlessness when that link led to this link of Leonard Nimoy singing The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins sometime during the '60's. All because I wanted to understand what was up with Kim Jong-II. Who'd a thunk.
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