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 September 23, 2006
Meditation term for a mind that refuses to be quiet and concentrated, so that your meditation is interfered with by your attention constantly finding new objects, like a monkey roaming through your brain.
If I concentrate very quietly I am sure I can think of an example, such as I wonder if Sandra wears panties in the summer?, no I mean an example of monkey mind, for which I need to concentrate like lemon juice concentrate god that's the best stuff for making lemonade to families with dependent children like monkeys infesting the mind and asking questions authority and authorizes questions come on there has to be an example of monkey mind your own business monkey business suit monkey suit
by old lang guy October 17, 2006
Stripper or slut-in-a-box worker. Mostly you hear the expression from old gomers nowadays. From the old usage of "sling" to mean delivering or presenting, so in 30s hep jive, waitresses were hash slingers, bartenders were booze slingers, and so on.
Grandma got through the first part of the Depression slinging milk, but the dairy went bankrupt, so she slung hash for a while, till she found out she could make a lot more at the burly-q as a tit slinger.
by old lang guy September 12, 2006
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
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
The rule that if you listen very seriously and intently, with a deeply caring expression, to anyone until 4:30 a.m., they then must have sex with you. Sometimes a verb as well. Comes from the original, good version of Bedazzled, with Peter Cook (as the devil) and Dudley Moore (as the guy being tempted).
"Have you thought of just applying the rule of half past four?"
"What is it?"
"If you can stay wide awake and gaze at her thinking 'You are fascinating,' the whole time she talks, for everything she says, no matter how pointless and no matter how stupid, till half past four in the morning, you're in." (Not an exact quote)
I wanted her so bad that one night when she was drunk and dumping all this self pity, I kept telling her what an interesting person she was, until I finally half past foured my way into her pants.
"What is it?"
"If you can stay wide awake and gaze at her thinking 'You are fascinating,' the whole time she talks, for everything she says, no matter how pointless and no matter how stupid, till half past four in the morning, you're in." (Not an exact quote)
I wanted her so bad that one night when she was drunk and dumping all this self pity, I kept telling her what an interesting person she was, until I finally half past foured my way into her pants.
by old lang guy August 25, 2007