If you were at the end of a pier and a suicidal young lady came bearing down on you, would you toss yourself off or obstruct her passage?

Further Old King Cole stanzas:

...painters...brush...slap it up & down, up & down...
...tailors...needle...stick it in & out, in & out...
...baker...tart...fill that tart with cream...
...butchers...block...slap your meat on the block...
Fiddle-de-fiddle-de-dee, said the fiddlers,
Merry, merry men are we!
There's none so fair as can compare
With the boys of the varsity.

One might also note a stanza in "My God, How the Money Rolls In":

My uncle makes big tallow candles
Of wax that is specially soft.
He says they may come in quite handy
If ever his business drops off.

Cf.

If you should wed a businessman, be wary, O be wary!
He'll say he has to stay in town on business necessary.
His business is the business that he gives his secretary.
Oh, I hate men! -- "Kiss Me, Kate"