Magic Negro: Brackish Curative Black Benevolence

Whodini: It's All In Mr. Magic's Wand (Prod. by Thomas Dolby)
From: Whodini (Jive, 1983)

Cold off the presses comes excerpts from LA Times, March 19, 2007, article: Obama the 'Magic Negro' by David Ehrenstein:
…it's clear that Obama also is running for an equally important unelected office, in the province of the popular imagination — the "Magic Negro."
The Magic Negro is a figure of postmodern folk culture, coined by snarky 20th century sociologists, to explain a cultural figure who emerged in the wake of Brown vs. Board of Education. "He has no past, he simply appears one day to help the white protagonist," reads the description on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical_Negro.
He's there to assuage white "guilt" (i.e., the minimal discomfort they feel) over the role of slavery and racial segregation in American history, while replacing stereotypes of a dangerous, highly sexualized black man with a benign figure for whom interracial sexual congress holds no interest.
As might be expected, this figure is chiefly cinematic — embodied by such noted performers as Sidney Poitier, Morgan Freeman, Scatman Crothers, Michael Clarke Duncan, Will Smith and, most recently, Don Cheadle. And that's not to mention a certain basketball player whose very nickname is "Magic."
…most white Americans, whose desire for a noble, healing Negro hasn't faded. That's where Obama comes in...
Like a comic-book superhero, Obama is there to help, out of the sheer goodness of a heart we need not know or understand. For as with all Magic Negroes, the less real he seems, the more desirable he becomes. If he were real, white America couldn't project all its fantasies of curative black benevolence on him.

If you haven't yet read the An Open Letter to Oprah Winfrey by Saul Williams go get a late pass.

The Word of the Day for May 02, 2007 is:

brackish • \BRACK-ish\ • adjective
*1: somewhat salty
2a: not appealing to the taste b: repulsive

Example Sentence:
Water is often brackish and undrinkable at points where freshwater rivers flow into the sea.

Did you know?
When the word "brackish" first appeared in English in the 1500s, it simply meant "salty," as did its Dutch ancestor "brak." Then, as now, brackish water could simply be a mixture of saltwater and freshwater. Since that time, however, "brackish" has developed the additional meanings of "unpalatable" or "distasteful" - presumably because of the undrinkable quality of saltwater. "The brackish water that we drink / Creeps with a loathsome slime, / And the bitter bread they weigh in scales / Is full of chalk and lime." As this use from Oscar Wilde's "Ballad of Reading Gaol" illustrates, brackish water can also include things other than salt that make it unpleasant to drink.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

*I met John "Ecstasy" Fletcher of Whodini in Harlem years ago (~1998) at a 106 and Park outdoor concert a week after they performed at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in Washington DC, which I also attended. While talking with Ecstasy I mentioned that I attended their last performance as mentioned in the latter. Additionally, I praised Whodini's past work and lauded Larry Smith their producer for their Back In Black (Jive, 1986) album which featured: "Funky Beat"(co-produced by Whodini & Carter, D.Hutchins - whom I know nothing about), "One Love", "I'm A Ho" (co-produced by Jalil Hutchins of Whodini) and "Echo Scratch", (my favorite Whodini non-commercial release!)", who learned to play bass by listening to the late James Brown.
During my diatribe Ecstacy eyes dilated, his head nodded and he articulated, "ok, Ok, OK!" repeatedly - paralanguage profferring expositional respect relative my Whodini-based factualness.

Good?

ARBITRARY WORD OF THE DAY

Cal Tjader: Never Can Say Goodbye
Last Bolero In Berkeley (Fantasy, 1973)

Peedi Crakk AKA Peedi Peedi: Sit…Good Dog
Freeway & Benja Styles: What We Do The Movie

It’s Monday, my deriving at the arbitrary word of the day as “good” is irrefutably arbitrary. I’m not feeling too verbose, nor am I feeling “too” much of anything work-related today, as again, it is Monday - cars made on Monday are to be avoided for the same reason.

Main Entry: ¹good
Pronunciation: 'gud
Function: adjective
Inflected Form(s): bet·ter /'be-t&r/; best /'best/
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English gOd; akin to Old High German guot good, Middle High German gatern to unite, Sanskrit gadhya what one clings to
1 a (1) : of a favorable character or tendency <good news> (2) : BOUNTIFUL, FERTILE <good land> (3) : HANDSOME, ATTRACTIVE <good looks> b (1) : SUITABLE, FIT <good to eat> (2) : free from injury or disease good arm> (3) : not depreciated good> (4) : commercially sound good risk> (5) : that can be relied on <good for another year> <good for a hundred dollars> good for a laugh> (6) : PROFITABLE, ADVANTAGEOUS good deal> c (1) : AGREEABLE, PLEASANT good time> (2) : SALUTARY, WHOLESOME <good for a cold> (3) : AMUSING, CLEVER good joke> d (1) : of a noticeably large size or quantity : CONSIDERABLE good margin> good bit of the time> (2) : FULL good hour> (3) -- used as an intensive good many of us> e (1) : WELL-FOUNDED, COGENT <good reasons> (2) : TRUE good for society at large> (3) : deserving of respect : HONORABLE good standing> (4) : legally valid or effectual <good title> f (1) : ADEQUATE, SATISFACTORY <good care> -- often used in faint praise good -- Frank Deford> (2) : conforming to a standard <good English> (3) : CHOICE, DISCRIMINATING <good taste> (4) : containing less fat and being less tender than higher grades -- used of meat and especially of beef
2 a (1) : VIRTUOUS, RIGHT, COMMENDABLE good person> <good conduct> (2) : KIND, BENEVOLENT <good intentions> b : UPPER-CLASS good family> c : COMPETENT, SKILLFUL good doctor> d (1) : LOYAL good party man> good Catholic> (2) : CLOSE good friend> e : free from infirmity or sorrow good>
- good·ish /'gu-dish/ adjective
- as good as : in effect : VIRTUALLY <as good as dead>
- as good as gold
1 : of the highest worth or reliability as good as gold>
2 : well-behaved as good as gold>
- good and /"gud-^&n/ : VERY, ENTIRELY good and mad>
usage An old notion that it is wrong to say "I feel good" in reference to health still occasionally appears in print. The origins of this notion are obscure, but they seem to combine someone's idea that good should be reserved to describe virtue and uncertainty about whether an adverb or an adjective should follow feel. Today nearly everyone agrees that both good and well can be predicate adjectives after feel. Both are used to express good health, but good may connote good spirits in addition to good health.

Perforce

BELLICOSE EQUITABILITY

Gap Mangione is the older brother of Chuck Mangione. During the 1960-65 period, the two Mangiones played together regularly in the bebop group the Jazz Brothers, recording three boppish albums for Riverside from 1960-61. When the band broke up, Gap stayed in Rochester, leading his own trio: Tony Levin-Bass/Steve Gadd-Drums).
I offer Gap's familiar 'Boy With Toys' featuring Tony Levin and Steve Gadd off the Diana In The Autumn Wind (GRC/Josh, 1968/2003) album as the musical accompaniment for today's accosting affair.

The Word of the Day for March 20, 2007 is:
perforce \per-FORSS\ adverb
: by force of circumstances

Example Sentence:
Lorel and Curt's tiny vineyard produces a limited quantity of top-quality chardonnays that are perforce rather pricey.

Did you know?
English speakers borrowed "par force" from Anglo-French in the 14th century. "Par" meant "by" (from Latin "per") and the Anglo-French word "force" had the same meaning as its English equivalent, which was already in use by then. At first, "perforce" meant quite literally "by physical coercion." That meaning is no longer used today, but it was still prevalent in William Shakespeare's lifetime (1564-1616). "He rush'd into my house and took perforce my ring away," wrote the Bard in The Comedy of Errors. The "force of circumstances" sense of "perforce" had also come into use by Shakespeare's day. In Henry IV, Part 2, we find ". . . your health; the which, if you give o'er to stormy passion, must perforce decay."

Malapropism

FORENOON TENDER


Juelz Santana's Rap City freestyle of March 7, 2007, as much of what the Dipset does, is guffaw-worthy albeit by default (i.e. happenstance - though they apparently have a rap-comedian monopoly) or willfully. Nevertheless, JS's use of "athletes feet" versus "athletes foot" is a malapropism (or my perception of one). JS repeating, "ya stinking it up like athletes feet" three times has made my day - let it enrich your life as well.

Main Entry: mal·a·prop·ism
Pronunciation: \ˈma-lə-ˌprä-ˌpi-zəm\
Function: noun
Etymology: Mrs. Malaprop, character noted for her misuse of words in R. B. Sheridan's comedy The Rivals (1775)
Date: 1849
1 : the usually unintentionally humorous misuse or distortion of a word or phrase; especially: the use of a word sounding somewhat like the one intended but ludicrously wrong in the context
2 : MALAPROP
— mal·a·prop·ist \-ˌprä-pist\ noun

Per Wikipedia:
Athlete's foot or tinea pedis is a fungal infection of the skin of the foot, usually between the toes, caused by parasitic fungi.
Athlete's foot is a layman's description of a skin fungal infection. Fungal infections of the skin are called dermatophytosis. Dermatophytes may be spread from other humans (anthropophilic), animals (zoophilic) or may come from the soil (geophilic).