h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This is a question for American researchers.

In the song "Buddy can you spare a dime?" the singer reminiscences about days when "they called me Al, yes it was Al all the time". And Paul Simon has a song about being called Al.

So what's the big deal about being called Al?

Why only Americans?

Whatever the reason in 'Buddy...' - Paul Simon's is different. He took it from a friend who ended an evening at Simon's bey saying 'Well, thank you for a sell time, Al, and give my love to your charming wife Betty'.

Thanks, Edward. I guess the big question is about Buddy. Once in khaki suits I went marching through hell. Once I built a railroad. Once I used to be called Al.

Seems to have been a hell of a name. Or perhaps it's just because it rhymes with "pal".

Could be that it's the most elemental of names. The simplest sound a baby makes is 'ma' which opens the mouth and 'al' which closes it. It feels good in the mouth unlike, say, Dick.

Al is the name of the chief middle eastern god before one of his sons declared 'thou shalt have no gods before me'

It has the biggest vowel. You can shout it very loudly. It carries a long way when calling your kids or calling them to prayer.

I suppose it's because it's a nickname - it's short for Albert, or Alfred - so it goes one step beyond the intimacy of being on first-name terms.

Perhaps "Buddy..." is just tipping a little wink to the other song. It's common enough for little references like that to pop up in songs.

I think Malabarista is on the right track. "Al" is an everyman name, the guy next door, the guy at the bar (and the rhyme is a big plus). But not the wealthy industrialist who builds railroads and skyscrapers. Those people go by more formal names like "Richard Cory" (not Rick or Dick). This is also a song by Paul Simon, based on a poem by Edwin Arlington Robinson:

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/richard-cory/

Guys named "Al" don't "glitter when they walk".

Maybe we should ask U723247.

i think it is refering to the fact that everyone knew him,

he had a job a family and a circle of friends who all knew him by his name Al

now he is homeless alone and jobless and all faces are a stranger to him and he is one of the faceless masses looking for work, no one knows him or wants to know him so its the annonimous "buddy"

any name would be fine, Bob, Fred, Jim, its just the rhyme with Al helps in the song

Thanks, everyone. I'm convinced.

'The simplest sound a baby makes is 'ma' which opens the mouth and 'al' which closes it. It feels good in the mouth unlike, say, Dick.'

There's a theory that all language has its roots in onomatopoeia, which is why words like huge, grand, great and enormous are spoken with the mouth wide open, while words such as minute, tiny and small are spoken with an almost closed mouth.

Penis, of course, falls into the second category.

'

Aha!
While other bolder, cruder words for penis are of the first order, spoken loud and proud.

Except of course the mumbling about the 'male member'.


~jwf~

>>There's a theory that all language has its roots in onomatopoeia,

And, by extension synaethesia. Villayanur Ramachandran http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/reith2003/ see Lecture 4) talks about an experiment whereby people are shown pictures of two aliens. One is jagged and piky, the other is rotund and blobby. They are asked to say which of these is kakked 'Boobah' and which 'Kiki'.

Which do you think?

And on that theme...why is the taste of cheese described as 'sharp'?

But. yes...everyone knew him as 'Al'. He was a popular guy. Now he's just some bum in a Hooverville.

kakked?!! Called!

Freudian onomatopoeia.

piky? spiky! etc. etc.

Might have been a slip of the keyboard, as described by Sigmund Qwerty in a paper in 1937.