<< Okay, "Jack and Danny" must mean no hesitation or
right away, but where
does it come from? Who were Jack and Danny and what
does their last
name rhyme with, assuming it's rhyming slang?
>>
It means fanny, as in mess around, but I don't know who Jack
and Danny were, if anyone. Jack Daniels, perhaps?
<<"They're living in big drums, two new motors parked
up outside, flashing the cash and even signing on the Kid
Creole every fortnight. Balls they called it. Rank stupidity
and greed I'd call it." I get that it means they are living
large, being conspicuous and calling attention to themselves.
But what about the specifics. Drums mean house, right?
Where's that come from? >>
I've always assumed that drum kit rhymes with pit - the place
you sleep. The US equivalent, I think, would be crib, which
is your bed (your pit), and by extension, your flat.
>>And I'm guessing that "Kid Creole" means public
assistance, rhyming with
"dole"? But why Kid Creole? >>
Dole, yes; a knowing updating (but not *very* up to date,
which i suppose is the point) of the more common "Nat King
[Cole]". It's worth mentioning that most of these terms are
used in fiction (especially TV) a donald duck of a lot more
than they are in real life (or what passes for real life in
The Smoke). I lived in London for many years (albeit North
not South) and never heard anyone say "I only left me drum
once all day, and that was to sign on the Nat King - spent
the rest of the time Jack'n'Dannying about."
<< Decoding UK slang leads me to wonder if there is a
similar problem with US slang for non-natives. Do those of
you from other cultures find yourself struggling with US
argot or is our exported culture so ubiquitous that you are
already fluent in it?>>
I'm not sure it's the ubiquity; I think it's more that the UK
is much more cosmopolitan than the US, and therefore finds
foreignness generally easier to read. I know from personal
experience that some USian readers go into a state of
near-catatonia, or else righteous rage, when faced with any
word or concept which they havent grown up with! (While
others, of course, love it).
- Mat C
<A HREF="
http://hometown.aol.co.uk/matcoward/myhomepage/newsletter.html">
http://hometown.aol.co.uk/matcoward/myhomepage/newsletter.html>
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