Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2014 January 28

= January 28 =

How do I teach my grandmother to suck eggs?
Please see title — Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.152.2.38 (talk) 15:31, 28 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Wikipedia has an article about everything - see Teaching grandmother to suck eggs. Alansplodge (talk) 16:08, 28 January 2014 (UTC)
 * And here I always thought what was meant was as rude as enseñarle a mamar huevos! μηδείς (talk) 20:56, 28 January 2014 (UTC)
 * You learn something new every day. I thought the OP was being funny. Little did I know that this gross-sounding expression actually has an established sort-of-literary history. Not that I expect to use it in conversation anytime soon. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 22:50, 28 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Yes, according to The Hobbit, Gollum taught his grandmother to suck eggses. Jonathunder (talk) 03:25, 30 January 2014 (UTC)
 * You'll need to ask your old pal, Stinky Wizzleteats. He'll also teach you to be happy. InedibleHulk (talk) 00:29, 29 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Happy Happy, Joy Joy...-- Jayron  32  05:52, 1 February 2014 (UTC)

Pete Seeger, traitor
Among the recent frenzy of edits to the Pete Seeger article were a couple that did things like adding "traitor" to the list of the many things he was, and adding pictures implying that he wasn't a good person in the eyes of that particular editor. Naturally, such edits are gone now, but it got me wondering. I hadn't ever thought of him as anything but a great contributor to folk music, but maybe this position was a real one. Is there a documented position of opposition to him and his life of activities? HiLo48 (talk) 23:40, 28 January 2014 (UTC)


 * Pete_Seeger list any number of positions of his which might cause an opponent to call him a traitor, from his membership in the Communist Party to his opposition to the Vietnam War. StuRat (talk) 23:43, 28 January 2014 (UTC)


 * You had to be there, to understand the climate of those days. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 23:50, 28 January 2014 (UTC)


 * Oh don't worry, I'm old enough to remember, and I can see the problem now. It's interesting how long some people will hold a grudge. Thanks guys. HiLo48 (talk) 23:54, 28 January 2014 (UTC)
 * The report on the CBS evening news had a clip from an interview a few years ago. He was asked about having run-ins with the HUAC and such. He said it was good, because it helped sell more tickets! His momma didn't raise no fools. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 00:11, 29 January 2014 (UTC)


 * Not only does the Right consider Seeger a traitor, he's also a plagiarist of perhaps the biggest musical hit of the 20th century, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" and its various incarnations; see this essay. On the other hand, The New York Sun (presumably the pen of Conrad Black) wrote him an elegant and moving obituary, Seeger's politics notwithstanding. μηδείς (talk) 23:07, 30 January 2014 (UTC)

I can't claim any unusual expertise on this bit of trivia, BUT this assertion is contradicted by the Wikipedia article on The Lion Sleeps Tonight, which asserts that even the rapacious American record company obtained the rights from the out and out thieving South African swine record company that paid the original composer/performer a microscopic amount to record it and then never gave the song's originators another nickel.

In theory the record company told Seeger the song was public domain. When he found out the true history, Seeger insisted that money be sent to the original author but was never able to force them to treat Solomon Linda properly. Seeger later publically expressed a great deal of regret about the whole ugly mess. A few years back, Solomon's impoverished heirs finally received a noticeable amount of money, which of course represented a tiny fraction of the huge post Lion King profits from the song.

This is just another music-publishers-are-thieves nightmare. Third World composers were particularly vulnerable to this back in the days when their peoples were ruled by brutal colonial regimes.


 * for all of your accusations, especially the "traitor" tripe. RNealK (talk) 00:07, 2 February 2014 (UTC)


 * Here's more from Mark Steyn from the Right on Seeger's passing. μηδείς (talk) 02:50, 3 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Pretty cynical article. Seeger had legitimate complaints about certain things in America. But I always thought he fell into an intellectual trap by embracing Russian communism and turning a blind eye to its own evils. Paul Robeson fell into that trap also. Ironically, Lee Oswald, no less, became disillusioned by the way the USSR was being run. Supposedly he said, "I'm not a Communist, I'm a Marxist." So as bad a guy as Oswald was, he caught on much quicker. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 04:36, 3 February 2014 (UTC)


 * You might want to write Mr. Steyn a letter then, as should RNealK and our anonymous ranting vandal above him--my purpose is not to discuss the subject. I have provided references to conservative writers who appear to be highly critical of the subject's politics, as the OP asked. μηδείς (talk) 05:35, 3 February 2014 (UTC)