Bonny Lies Over the Ocean
With all the sensational news stories swirling around about Tiger Woods and Healthcare Reform, it's easy to get caught up in typical water cooler conversations. What we try to do at Zone 5 is bring the more compelling, provocative, hard-hitting stories to the forefront of everyone's minds and lips. Case in point: what's the story about this Yankee Doodle boy?
Yankee Doodle went to town
riding on a pony
stuck a feather in his cap
and called it macaroni
First glance might see this as a before-its-time example of product placement. Even though the origin of the song is unclear, tradition places it in a pre-Revolutionary War song. Was macaroni a growing product in the mid- to late-1700s that could use a push with a catchy jingle? Or had macaroni become one of the first examples of brand supremacy, like "Band Aid" and "Kleenex"?
The second theory is worth exploration simply based on the inherent laziness in most humans.
"...stuck a feather in his cap and called it...called it..."
"Beefaroni?" Hasn't been invented yet.
"A complete phony?" Too many syllables...
"My boy Tony?" Maybe...
"Chicken boney?" Might offend farmers.
"Macaroni?" I give up...Perfect!
Thirdly, this could be a simple case of Inanimate Object Perplexity* (or IOP**), where physical items are mistakingly confused or replaced with unrelated objects. Case in point, according to one un-named publication in the checkout line at Hannaford, an elderly man in New Jersey once thought his wife was an ottoman (and vice versa). The author of the Doodle jingle might have thought that his hat was actually macaroni. With that knowledge, you wouldn't want to be a guest at his house for dinner on spaghetti night.
In the quest of determining which theory holds the most merit (and would make the best foundation for my next white paper), probing deeper into the song might shed some light on the author and his or her meaning:
Yankee Doodle keep it up,
Yankee Doodle dandy,
Mind the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy.
This verse leans us towards the assumption that the ditty's main subject is is more than likely male. And by the sound of it, he might be a real ladies man, unless he's a youth that helps fix young girls' broken toys (unlikely).
This verse also brought our crack research team to explore another famous Yankee Doodle melody in hopes of unearthing additional clues about feathers and pasta. Unfortunately, all we uncovered from that exercise were more questions.
...Yankee Doodle went to London riding on a pony
I am that Yankee Doodle boy.
First, what's with the pony, anyway? Weren't there more effective/efficient/expeditious means of travel in those days? And what's he doing in London?
In summary, our research unfortunately brings us to conclude that there are more questions than answers regarding this Yankee Doodle character. More research is indeed needed.
Stay tuned for more revelations on Yankee Doodle and on our next major research project, this Bonny who Lies Over the Ocean: Very Tall Woman, Tiny Body of Water or Compulsive Fibber Whenever Onboard Salt Water Vessels?
*not an actual syndrome
**still not an actual syndrome
