Also songs used when people needed to work in rhythm. Many are familiar folk songs. Like
--sea chanteys where the lead singer's solo line would get everyone set, and then they'd all sing (and therefore exhale) when they put out their effort pulling on a line.
-- field hollers that were used to keep lines hoeing a field up with each other. (And field hollers, speeded up and with some rhythm and some guitar added, might have been one of the origins of the blues, and thus of most American popular music since 1920)
-- capstan chanteys that kept people pretty much walking in the same rhythm while they turned giant cranks.
Very often work songs were subversive, making fun of the boss, complaining about the conditions, and sometimes carrying instructions for prison breaks, union organizing, or the Underground Railroad.
--sea chanteys where the lead singer's solo line would get everyone set, and then they'd all sing (and therefore exhale) when they put out their effort pulling on a line.
-- field hollers that were used to keep lines hoeing a field up with each other. (And field hollers, speeded up and with some rhythm and some guitar added, might have been one of the origins of the blues, and thus of most American popular music since 1920)
-- capstan chanteys that kept people pretty much walking in the same rhythm while they turned giant cranks.
Very often work songs were subversive, making fun of the boss, complaining about the conditions, and sometimes carrying instructions for prison breaks, union organizing, or the Underground Railroad.
Work songs examples:
Sea chantey,
Leader (while the end man belays, and everyone walks up the line and gets a grip): Reuben was no sailor ...
Crew (Singing while they pull the line back): Ranzo, boys ranzo!
(later in the song it turns out Reuben is now the captain ...)
Field holler ...
Leader: (while the crew picks up their hammers, stretches, and gets ready to swing): When Israel was in Egypt land ...
Crew (hitting on the drills on let, peop, and go): LET MY PEOPLE GO!
Capstan chantey, used to turn the winch to move the locks on the canal ...
Leader (while crew breathe and get set): I got a mule, her name is Sal ...
Crew (Walking forward, pushing on the capstan bars): FIFTEEN MILES ON THE ERIE CANAL!
Sea chantey,
Leader (while the end man belays, and everyone walks up the line and gets a grip): Reuben was no sailor ...
Crew (Singing while they pull the line back): Ranzo, boys ranzo!
(later in the song it turns out Reuben is now the captain ...)
Field holler ...
Leader: (while the crew picks up their hammers, stretches, and gets ready to swing): When Israel was in Egypt land ...
Crew (hitting on the drills on let, peop, and go): LET MY PEOPLE GO!
Capstan chantey, used to turn the winch to move the locks on the canal ...
Leader (while crew breathe and get set): I got a mule, her name is Sal ...
Crew (Walking forward, pushing on the capstan bars): FIFTEEN MILES ON THE ERIE CANAL!
by old lang guy July 14, 2008
Get the Work Songsmug. A misunderstanding of the old scientist/techie joke that a millihelen is the amount of beauty needed to launch one ship. Milli- is the international scientific prefix for 1/1000. Most international units are named after someone -- watt for power, newton for force, ampere for current, and so on. Scientists, techs, and gears who work with those prefixes all the time often attach them to all sorts of made-up units. So a megahelen would be the beauty of a face that launched a billion ships (one million times one thousand) and a nanohelen would be the face that launched one millionth of a ship (one billionth times one thousand). Millihelen worked better a few decades ago when newspapers and TV news often carried stories about ship launchings, because usually the woman christening the ship launch was a First Lady, the Queen, or some senator or lord's wife (what nowadays we call a first wife, the one before the trophy wife), and thus a lizardy old bag that was only sort of recognizably female.
"That one's a mini-Helen."
"Unless she's a real cute midget, you mean she's got about a millihelen. Go back to chemistry class and stop getting your science from Star Trek reruns!"
"Unless she's a real cute midget, you mean she's got about a millihelen. Go back to chemistry class and stop getting your science from Star Trek reruns!"
by old lang guy September 08, 2006
Get the mini-Helenmug. The "private live show" booths at the back of some porn shops and strip clubs, where a girl strips, masturbates, and/or inserts dildos on the lighted side of the glass, while the paying customer jacks off in the dark on the other side of the glass. A few of them are fronts for prostitution or have glory holes, but most are just places for a guy to have a quiet private yank on his crank while a pretty girl shows off to him.
Sandy got tired of guys trying to get under the G-string when they tucked in a bill, so she started working at the slut in a box club.
He didn't have the money for a hooker or even for a rub-and-tug so he ended up going to a slut in a box.
He didn't have the money for a hooker or even for a rub-and-tug so he ended up going to a slut in a box.
by old lang guy September 25, 2006
Get the slut in a boxmug. I was too broke for the plane anyway, and didn't want to have to mail all my gear to myself, so I took the Hound.
by old lang guy June 22, 2012
Get the The Houndmug. A noun in military, engineering, and political speak. Means the period of preparation leading up to roll-out, especially the most frantic no-sleep, no-time, any-expense, just get something no matter what period.
That whole week was the run up to Operation Blue Arrow, so I got about three hours of sleep a night if I was lucky.
Wooo-hoo, unlimited overtime for the run up to the release of MyThing!
We'll need the major nets, papers, and blogs watched twenty-four seven for the run up to the Iowa caucuses.
Wooo-hoo, unlimited overtime for the run up to the release of MyThing!
We'll need the major nets, papers, and blogs watched twenty-four seven for the run up to the Iowa caucuses.
by old lang guy September 17, 2008
Get the run upmug. Jeans so low cut that some pubic hair curls over the belt buckle; thought to be daring and sexy by a certain kind of younger woman.
by old lang guy October 17, 2006
Get the pube jeansmug. Variant spelling of "run the gantlet." Spelled either way, it's pronounced gauntlet. A gantlet is a double line of people with clubs, whips, tomahawks, fraternity paddles, or other weapons; the poor bastard being punished runs between the lines and everyone hits him as he goes by. Depending on weapons and circumstances, this has been used as an initiation, a test of courage, a way to decide which prisoner to let go (to take the message back that you are holding hostages), or a way to execute someone without making any one person responsible. Often used to describe what the in-crowd does to a noob before accepting him -- "Making him run the gantlet" is a stronger, more violent expression than "making him pay some dues" or "putting him through all the hoops."
The Indians made old Zeke run the gauntlet and when he made it through with just some cuts and a lump on his head, they let him go.
My first year on the job they made me run the gantlet, but after that I was in.
At Kappa Kappa Kappa they make us pledges run the gauntlet for three months, and then on initiation night they make us run a real gantlet; I got through with my ass only getting about five hits, but my roommate fell down and they flayed his pathetic ass.
My first year on the job they made me run the gantlet, but after that I was in.
At Kappa Kappa Kappa they make us pledges run the gauntlet for three months, and then on initiation night they make us run a real gantlet; I got through with my ass only getting about five hits, but my roommate fell down and they flayed his pathetic ass.
by old lang guy January 11, 2008
Get the Run the Gauntletmug.