RIP Jimmy Dean
June 14, 2010
Mr. Jimmy Dean has gone to that great sausage maker in the sky:
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Jimmy Dean, a country music star known for his hit about a workingman hero, ”Big Bad John,” and an entrepreneur known for his sausage brand, died on Sunday. He was 81.
His wife, Donna Meade Dean, said her husband died at their Henrico County, Va., home.
We always admired Mr. Dean hear at the BRI—and not just because of “Big Bad John.” We wrote a little something about him some years ago in an article about people who had made the Big Time—despite not having done a lot of schooling:
The singer-songwriter left school at 16 and joined the Merchant Marines. He knew that fame could be fleeting, so after his prime-time TV variety show ran its course, he founded the Jimmy Dean Sausage Company and kept his TV appearances to folksy sausage commercials. He sold the company to Sara Lee in 1991, but is still chairman of the board.
And oh man, check this out, Jimmy doing that great song must have been just a year ago or so:
So long, Mr. Jimmy Dean, from Uncle John and all of us here at the BRI.
Real Giguere did the french version of this song in the 60 or so it was called “Gros Jambon” (Big Ham). How apropriated!
Just Youtube it !(did i just verbed youtube ?)
You not only verbed youtube, Charly, you verbed verb. And you verbed it badly, I’m afraid.
(in a very tick Frenc-Canadian accent)
It is not my first language … You probably right … ! I googled it (wink wink) …
Verbing
Wednesday October 14, 2009
In a single work day, you can head a task force, eye an opportunity, nose around for good ideas, mouth a greeting, elbow an opponent, strong-arm a colleague, shoulder the blame, stomach a loss, and finally hand in your resignation. What you’re doing with all those body parts is called verbing–using nouns as verbs.
Verbing is a time-honored way of coining new words out of old ones, the etymological process of conversion (or functional shifting). Sometimes it’s also a kind of word play (anthimeria), as in Shakepeare’s King Richard the Second when the Duke of York says, “Grace me no grace, and uncle me no uncles.”
Verbing Weirds Language
Calvin and Hobbes once discussed verbing in Bill Watterson’s wise comic strip:
Calvin: I like to verb words.
Hobbes: What?
Calvin: I take nouns and adjectives and use them as verbs. Remember when “access” was a thing? Now it’s something you do. It got verbed. . . . Verbing weirds language.
Hobbes: Maybe we can eventually make language a complete impediment to understanding.
ha. You funnied this up very nicely, Charly.