[Re: 'cute'. In some rural areas of Canada it is indeed used in the sense of 'acute', 'sly', 'tricky' ... Whether this comes from Irish usage I don't know, but the regions I associate this usage with do have considerable Irish influence: Newfoundland and the Ottawa Valley].

Re: Kumbaya. Once again, I'm struck by how much our reaction to certain songs depends on the specific circles we've travelled in - or spun out of. I sang Kumbaya enough as a kid in the 'sixties to get mightily tired of it, but I don't think I ever associated it with civil rights or the saving of the world generally. I understood it to have vaguely African origins, but this was just a point of interest without political overtones. It was simply, like Michael Row the Boat Ashore, an appealing (for awhile) spiritual that everyone could join in on. When we sang We Shall Overcome, on the other hand, I think most kids were aware of its connection with the civil rights movement, which I'm sure we all (as good Canadians) felt was a worthy enterprise, but I certainly didn't imagine that a bunch of us singing it around a campfire was going to change anything. It was something to sing, and an inspiration to think a bit about people who were in a tough situation, and were struggling to do something about it ... So I don't feel any embarrassment about any of those songs - but that has to do with my own experience, and not with the songs themselves.