Hello, Guest 05 Mar 09 - 10:15 AM.

I like the idea of enclosing "coon song" in inverted commas* when using that phrase in modern writings.

*Is 'inverted commas' what the British call 'quotation marks?. I hadn't heard that term before. I consider learning "real" usages of British English (or should I say UK English? and Australian English etc) is another benefit of this international discussion forum.

-snip-

You wrote that "On the question of blacking bottles, I hope I am not stating the painfully obvious if I say that for most of the nineteenth century boot and stove blacking came in bottles."

That wasn't obvious to me, as I had no clue how these products were packaged.

Thanks!

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Somewhat off-topic...Okay really off-topic :o)

Earlier this morning (when my cold medicine stopped working and I decided to visit Mudcat while I was waiting for it to kick in again), I wrote a comment about "Shine", the central character in a number of African American adult toasts (narrative rap like poems). The nickname "Shine" is somewhat relevant to "boot blackening" as the name probably refers to the main character's black skin being so dark that it shined like bootblack (what we in the USA nowadays call black shoe polish). It seems to me that using the name "Shine" was probably an example of Black folks taking the sting out of what may have been started by us (or by non-Black people) as a racial putdown.
By using the name "Shine" for the street hero, was/is another way of saying "We're Black and we're proud" or at least "We're Black and we're bad" (with "bad" here meaning "very good").

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Here's a link to one of at least two Mudcat links that mention "Shine" and those toasts.

It just occurred to me that maybe the word "toast" is used in the sense of "giving a tribute to someone or something". These toasts certainly gave props (the proper respect, compliments) to "Shine".

Who is this "Shine" Guy?