[Sca-cooks] OT mail question

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach James Prescott:
>At 03:54 -0500 2005-03-12, Martin G. Diehl wrote:
>
>>  BTW, did they have SPAM -- unwanted messages -- in period?
>
>
>In one sense, yes.  Vendors wandered the streets and markets, and
>many constantly called their wares in a variety of ways, musical
>and not, poetic and not.  Spam if you like, omni-present advertising
>if you prefer.

There's a lot of advertising graffiti in Pompeii and Herculaneum, too.

>Some were even set to music by fascinated composers (check out
>"Street Cries of London" by Ravenscroft & Cobb).

See the Larousse Gastronomique for an article on the Street Cries of Paris ;-).

>I'm ancient enough to remember the 'rag and bone' man in his
>horse drawn cart who clip-clopped up the street outside my
>grandparents' house in Adelaide, Australia, calling (I forget
>his text) at every house.
>
>The milkman and the iceman had similar horse-drawn carts, though
>I don't remember if they had cries.
>
>Brits of a similar vintage may remember the scrap metal collectors
>with their "Any old iron!" cries.

I remember the knife sharpener, who'd sharpen knives, ice skates, 
garden shears, scissors, hedge clippers, etc., who used to drive 
around in an old truck, ringing a distinctive-sounding bell. Also the 
old Italian produce guy, who'd croon a very specific melody, no doubt 
considering himself Enrico Caruso, 
"Strrrrrrraaaaaaawwwwberrrieeeeessssss... Bloooooooooooooo-berries... 
Cheeee-eee-eee-e-rrrieeeesss...." All this would have been in the 
Outer Boroughs of New York City (Ralph Kramden/Archie Bunker 
territory) as recently as the 60's and early 70's.

[Some other time we can talk about the invisible horsedrawn cart we 
used to hear clip-clopping its way along our street occasionally, 
just before dawn... but I guess that doesn't count as advertising...]

As for the rag and bone man, I don't remember seeing him, but in one 
of the early Marx Brothers movies (it's all downhill after 1932 or 
so, IMO), Groucho's character (maybe Quincey Wagstaff in "Horse 
Feathers") breaks into a sort of rap (for lack of a better term), 
chanting/singing "Any rags, any bones, any bottles today... Any 
rags?" Obviously this is a reference moviegoers in 1932 understood...

P.S.: The Groucho Marx bit apparently comes from a song widely sung 
(usually by Caucasians in makeup) in old "nigger minstrel shows".

Adamantius
-- 




"S'ils n'ont pas de pain, vous fait-on dire, qu'ils  mangent de la 
brioche!" / "If there's no bread to be had, one has to say, let them 
eat cake!"
	-- attributed to an unnamed noblewoman by Jean-Jacques 
Rousseau, "Confessions", 1782

"Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?"
	-- Susan Sheybani, assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry 
Holt, 07/29/04