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| re: What’s wrong with “I feel pretty”? | |
| Posted by: showtunetrivia 05:59 pm EST 02/22/20 | |
| In reply to: re: What’s wrong with “I feel pretty”? - Michael_Portantiere 04:02 pm EST 02/22/20 | |
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| Nellie’s line about feeling bromidic sounds stilted to us because that’s a word that’s pretty much vanished from use. That wasn’t the case in the twenties through the forties. The term was derived from humorist Gilbert Burgess’s 1906 work, ARE YOU A BROMIDE? and show tune buffs will know Ira and George used it in 1927’s “The Babbitt and the Bromide.” Laura, who should be working but is watching baseball and nattering about old words... |
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| re: What’s wrong with “I feel pretty”? | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 08:07 pm EST 02/22/20 | |
| In reply to: re: What’s wrong with “I feel pretty”? - showtunetrivia 05:59 pm EST 02/22/20 | |
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| Understood, Laura, but to me, "bromidic" sounds a lot more stilted than "bromide." Plus it's not just that word, it's the combination of stilted language PLUS alliteration PLUS interior rhyming in one sentence that really bothers me: "I'm bromidic and bright as a moon-happy night pourlng light on the dew." | |
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| re: What’s wrong with “I feel pretty”? | |
| Posted by: Chromolume 08:32 pm EST 02/22/20 | |
| In reply to: re: What’s wrong with “I feel pretty”? - Michael_Portantiere 08:07 pm EST 02/22/20 | |
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| Except, when you look at the entire lyric - verse and refrain - it's full of alliterations and inner rhymes. Lots of both. Along with words like "dither" and "protestations" which also don't feel like everyday vocabulary. |
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| re: What’s wrong with “I feel pretty”? | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 06:12 pm EST 02/23/20 | |
| In reply to: re: What’s wrong with “I feel pretty”? - Chromolume 08:32 pm EST 02/22/20 | |
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| Right, but again, it's the combination of stilted language and alliteration AND interior rhyming IN ONE LINE that makes me think "I'm bromidic and bright as a moon-happy night pouring light on the dew" sounds so obviously "written." "Dither" doesn't strike me as high-flown language at all, and "protestations" only slightly. |
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| re: What’s wrong with “I feel pretty”? | |
| Posted by: Chromolume 10:39 pm EST 02/23/20 | |
| In reply to: re: What’s wrong with “I feel pretty”? - Michael_Portantiere 06:12 pm EST 02/23/20 | |
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| One other point to consider in context - the other nurses are listening in, and Nellie knows it. The vocab could be part of a deliberate bit of showing off. | |
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| re: What’s wrong with “I feel pretty”? | |
| Posted by: showtunetrivia 08:14 pm EST 02/22/20 | |
| In reply to: re: What’s wrong with “I feel pretty”? - Michael_Portantiere 08:07 pm EST 02/22/20 | |
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| Aw, come on, I bet Nellie wrote poetry in her girlish youth! (But I agree, it is a bit much...😀) Laura, back to watching baseball (hey, did you guys know Yankees fans used to sing “Of thee I sing, baby!” when the Bambino socked one over the fences? Morrie Ryskind said so.) |
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| re: What’s wrong with “I feel pretty”? | |
| Posted by: Chromolume 06:46 pm EST 02/22/20 | |
| In reply to: re: What’s wrong with “I feel pretty”? - showtunetrivia 05:59 pm EST 02/22/20 | |
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| I also think that Nellie would certainly have known the medicinal use of bromides (for headaches or as a sedative), so "bromidic" doesn't seem all that far fetched to me. But Laura, I agree - I think the reason the line sounds odd to us now is the the word itself has gone out of the vocabulary, along with babbitt. | |
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