Acres of Clams-WA song-please clarify

Subject: RE: Acres of Clams-WA song-please clarify
From: mousethief
Date: 21 Sep 00 - 10:46 AM

"Nisqually" is a river and valley just north of Olympia, WA. Which is sort of weird because most rivers in these parts end in "homish" or "wamish" -- which makes me think it's not the original name but one given by the White Man. It is also the name of a local tribe -- perhaps the white settlers named the valley after the people they found dwelling in it (there are other local rivers named after local tribes -- Puyallup for example).

Apparently there was either a Nisqually lauguage or a Nisqually-Puyallup language, if various websites are to be trusted. Interestingly ABC News/Science has an article on the Geoduck (click this) which says it is Nisqually for "dig deep." Which by golly makes sense (which of course proves nothing -- most folk etymologies make sense!).

FWIW, I have eaten at Ivar's Acres of Clams many times, and still remember him on television commercials with his little ukelele singing horribly punny versions of familiar songs (e.g. "Salmon chanted evening"). His Salmon House restaurant has some of the best alder-smoked salmon in Seattle.

Alex
O..O
=o=

Subject: RE: Acres of Clams-WA song-please clarify
From: mousethief
Date: 21 Sep 00 - 11:07 AM

Speaking of this, are there other folk songs that are specifically native to this corner of the woods? (By which I mean, roughly, the Portland/Seattle/Vancouver corridor?)

Somewhere at home in my many mixed-up files I have a copy of the words to "Wasn't that a Mighty Day, great God, that evening when the Needle Hit the Ground?" (a quasi-neo-folk song about Seattle's Space Needle) and if I ever find them again, I'll post them.

Alex
O..O
=o=

Subject: RE: Acres of Clams-WA song-please clarify
From: Haruo
Date: 28 Sep 00 - 11:54 AM

Just to clear up a couple of points that were left dangling in the Acres of Clams thread, which I recently ran across...

PN (Phil Nuytten) writes: : I doubt [geoduck] is Chinook since it would be in the Chinook jargon : if it were.

Why ? One of the notable things about pidgin trade languages is that they *don't* contain all of the vocabulary of whatever language they draw most of their words from. There are lots of Chinook words that aren't in CJ, and there are some very important, basic CJ words that are of Nootkan (Vancouver Island) rather than Chinook (lower Columbia River) origin.

Sandy writes: :Good to have your expertise here, Phil. Now, who/what/where the heck are the Lushootseed?

Phil again: : Looshutseed [sic-LBR] is not a NWC language that I know of

but it *is* a *language* hereabouts, and a NWC one if you call Puget Sound part of the coast. Lushootseed is the same as "Puget Sound Salish"; it's a generic term for the Salish language(s) native to the shores of Puget Sound, everything south of the Lummi/Nooksack areas and north of the Chehalis/Quinault, except for the Hood Canal Salish, who were Twana speakers. Major local forms of Lushootseed include Skagit, Sauk-Suiattle, Swinomish, Snohomish, Duwamish, Suquamish, Snoqualmie, Muckleshoot, Puyallup, Nisqually, Sahewamish ... basically each village/river had its own dialect, which have to a considerable extent been homogenized by the reservation system, intermarriage, and the automobile; however there are still obvious differences in grammar, not just local slang as someone suggested, between Skagit and Southern Lushootseed (Snohomish is a transitional dialect, plus its territory -- the Tulalip Reservation, especially -- has attracted people from all parts of the Sound.) The proper spelling of the name of the language *in* Lushootseed is dxwlESucid, where the w is superscript, the E should be a schwa (180-degree-rotated e), and the S should be a š (s with a hacek, or inverted circumflex). The Lushootseed word for geoduck is indeed gwídEq, again with a superscripted w and a schwa. But where they got it from, I've no idea.

Lushootseed is the language of the noted local elder storyteller Vi (taqwšEblu) Hilton of "Lady Louse" fame. I am afraid I don't know *anything* about Lushootseed folk songs. Most of the Puget Sound tribal organizations have programs to preserve and revive their local forms of Lushootseed, though in some cases the speaking population is reaching the vanishing point. It is taught in Auburn (Muckleshoot) and Marysville (Snohomish) schools, among others. The Lushootseed Dictionary (University of Washington Press, 1994) is a treasure trove of information largely not yet readily available on the Internet. ;-)

mousethief writes: : "Nisqually" is a river and valley just north of Olympia, WA. Which : is sort of weird because most rivers in these parts end in "homish" : or "wamish" -- which makes me think it's not the original name but : one given by the White Man. It is also the name of a local tribe -- : perhaps the white settlers named the valley after the people they : found dwelling in it (there are other local rivers named after : local tribes -- Puyallup for example).

Actually, the -mish (-bš in Lushootseed) means *people*, not *river*; the rivers were named for the peoples who inhabited their banks.

huy? [as they say in Lushootseed on parting; the ? is a glottal stop, not a question mark]

Liland Esperanto hymnist and wannabe Lushootseed speaker

PS I'm new here, so pardon my butting in like this...

Subject: RE: Acres of Clams-WA song-please clarify
From: mousethief
Date: 28 Sep 00 - 12:07 PM

Thanks for the linguistic tip! Now I know why we have all these "Mish" words!

What neighborhood do you live in, Liland? Maybe I'll see you at a Seattle song circle.

Alex
O..O
=o=

Subject: RE: Acres of Clams-WA song-please clarify
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 28 Sep 00 - 02:00 PM

Here is the Ivar's Restaurants web site. I was hoping it would have info about the song but it doesn't. I recall the paper placemats had the words to "Acres of Clams" on them. I understand the company is a worker-owned cooperative, and that Ivar set it up that way before he died. Another reason to regard him as a hero. I quote, from their employment page:

"Competitive wages, full medical, dental, vision and life insurance benefits, an excellent 401(k) retirement plan and a quality work environment await you at Ivar's!

"Qualified applicants are considered for all positions, and employees are treated without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, marital status, veteran status, sexual preference, or the presence of a non-job-related medical condition or disability."

Does that sound like a worker's paradise, or what?

Subject: RE: Acres of Clams-WA song-please clarify
From: mousethief
Date: 28 Sep 00 - 02:10 PM

And they make really tasty fried fish.

Alex
O..O
=o=

Subject: RE: Acres of Clams--and geoduck photo links
From: GUEST,Liland
Date: 28 Sep 00 - 02:11 PM

Alex, hi, I'm a Freemonster (in many senses: sobered up at the old Fremont AA Hall in 1984; have lived at the same address in Fremont most of the time since 1988; member of Fremont Baptist Church; founding member of the Fremont Esperanto Organization ... etc., etc.). My musical activity is mostly hymnic; might not recognize a song circle if one bit me ;-) ...

kat/katlaughing (?) wanted to find geoduck photos; best source for that sort of thing I'm aware of is Stan's Geoduck Page, at www.speakeasy.org/~vashon/geoducks.html

Incidentally, Japanese for geoduck is "mirugai"; next time you're in a sushiya, ask for it by name.

Liland

Subject: RE: Acres of Clams-WA song-please clarify
From: mousethief
Date: 28 Sep 00 - 03:04 PM

raw geoduck? Bleh!

So how are things in Glockamora -- I mean, Fremont?

Well if there's ever a Seattle-area Mudcatter get-together, maybe I'll see you there.

Meanwhile, since you're new, and interested in hymns, maybe you didn't see this thread: CLICKME

Alex
O..O
=o=

Subject: RE: Acres of Clams-WA song-please clarify
From: Haruo
Date: 07 Oct 00 - 06:22 PM

It was bound to happen! I've slightly revised (and, I hope, improved) my Esperanto translation of Acres of Clams, La Lamenbrankula Bien', and supplied it with a MIDI and a couple of maps to let Esperantists in Samarkand or wherever know where Puget Sound is.

Liland

Subject: RE: Acres of Clams-WA song-please clarify
From: katlaughing
Date: 12 Feb 01 - 12:49 AM

refrshing to see if we can catch the eye of PN for more stories of his adventures...are you out there, PN?

Subject: RE: Acres of Clams-WA song-please clarify
From: Idaho 50
Date: 12 Feb 01 - 02:04 AM

Harking back to Ivar's seafood restaurants, radio program of folk songs, including AOC on the placemats of the restaurant: Do you remember when he ran for Port Commissioner? His slogan was: VOTE FOR IVAR BECAUSE HE'S MORE PORTLY. For true.

Subject: RE: Acres of Clams-WA song-please clarify
From:
Date: 12 Feb 01 - 04:17 PM

Kat, where did you run across "Landlord's Lullaby" (exploring old threads)?

Cheers,
Charlie

Subject: RE: Acres of Clams-WA song-please clarify
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 12 Feb 01 - 04:33 PM

So there may be some truth to Arlo's epic "The Story of Reuben Clamso and His Strange Daughter In The Key Of A"

I love clams, I'm not sure I would like these ones.

Subject: RE: Acres of Clams-WA song-please clarify
From: artbrooks
Date: 12 Feb 01 - 07:20 PM

Just to contribute a couple of things to this rather disjointed discussion: I remember bringing a geoduck home from the Pike Place Market (wonderful place...at least then) thinking she'd like to try making chowder (no remarks about sexism, please. She prefers not eating my cooking.) The thing was about the size of a kids football, except flat, and the shell didn't begin to close around the clam. A classic blivit. She put it in a bucket of salt water in the back yard until it died a lingering death. Also, Seattle originally had seven (steep) hills, but they were "hydraulicked" down to the topology that you see today...that's where at least part of "Underground Seattle" comes from.

Subject: RE: Acres of Clams-WA song-please clarify
From: Deckman
Date: 13 Feb 01 - 06:51 AM

I was raised on the beach by Puget Sound (Puget's Sound, actually) In the 40's we could easily dig geoducks in the ten pound range. We'd grind the necks for chowder, fillett and fry the meat in the body, very sweet and delicious. My Father came very close to drowning because of a geoduck. It was on the three mile spit of Dungeness. He'd reached into the whole to grab the clam and it clamped on his finger. The tide was coming in very fast and the hole filled up. He was laying on the beach, his arm jammed in the whole yelling for me to get a knife and cut his arm off. The water was rising around his mouth and I was trying to hold the water back with my hands so he could breath. At the last minute, he managed to pull his arm up. He lost most of the flesh on that finger ... a true story!

Subject: RE: Acres of Clams-WA song-please clarify
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 13 Feb 01 - 08:48 AM

Deckman,

Do they taste any different to the smaller varieties that we get from the East Coast?

Steve

Subject: RE: Acres of Clams-WA song-please clarify
From: Deckman
Date: 13 Feb 01 - 02:35 PM

Hi Steve Latimer ... I've not been to the East Coast, that I remember, but I do think the Geoduck is unique. These are NOT a giant horse clam, or Pismo clam. They are a bi-valve, or is it bio-valve? The neck, which can extend to three feet as Sandy said, is very tough. It's all muscle. It must be skinned. After it's ground up and made into chowder. It tastes just like a rich clam meat. But it's the meat of the body that is the treasure. It's also very tough, so after it's cleaned and filleted, you must beat it, or pound it with a dimple headed mallet to soften the meat. The it's dipped in egg batter, fried slowly, and OH BOY! The body and shell of the clam looks likes any other clam, except that it's the size of large dinner plate. Gotta' go now, I made myself hungry! CHEERS, Bob Nelson

Subject: RE: Acres of Clams-WA song-please clarify
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 13 Feb 01 - 02:44 PM

Bob,

Thanks, I'll have to try some sometime.

Steve

Subject: Lyr Add: AN ODE TO THE HUMBLE GEODUCK (M. Korn)
From: Stewart
Date: 13 Feb 01 - 04:13 PM

No discussion of geoducks would be complete without this song by Meryle Korn

AN ODE TO THE HUMBLE GEODUCK
(Meryle A. Korn, Portland, OR, 19 July 1987)

'Twas some years ago in the summer,
at Charleston down on the coast
Where Joseph and Doug would go fishing,
a thing that they liked to do most,
They'd carry their beer to the harbor,
with hook, line and sinker, and pole,
And they'd sit and they'd fish in the sunlight,
till Nature came to call.

Now if there were no ladies present,
to the end of the dock they would stroll;
Not for them, the small, smelly building
that stood back on the shore,
They'd check right and left to be certain,
then their zippers they'd open wide,
Relieve themselves into the water,
and back up the dock they would stride.

Now it happened a boat full of "gentlemen"
at the end of the dock was tied,
And they'd comment upon the "equipment"
of each fisherman who came by,
And Joseph was not tall in stature,
and he got their treatment full,
And though he would always ignore them,
their mockery soon did pall.

But one day he dug up a geoduck!
An idea leapt into his mind,
Of a way to befuddle those yokels
whose words were so unkind,
He cut off the neck of the geoduck
(it surely would suit his plans),
And affixed it somehow to a most private place,
and tucked it down into his pants.

And that afternoon at his fishing,
drank the requisite number of beers,
Then sauntered on down to the dock's end
to his tormenters' hoots and jeers,
But the catcalling stopped! in amazement
as he prepared to do his deed, pulled out
Three feet of neck of the geoduck,
and through it, la la la, la lee!

Then grasping it firmly at center,
he went to a piling that stood
Covered with sharp shells of barnacles
encrusted on the wood;
Three mighty WHACKS! he gave it,
then tucked it back into its place,
And walked past their open-mouthed gawking,
beatifical smile on his face!

Cheers, S. in Seattle

Subject: RE: Acres of Clams-WA song-please clarify
From: katlaughing
Date: 13 Feb 01 - 04:47 PM

Well, I may not have reeled in Phil with this refresh, but the rest of ya have certainly be entertaining! Thanks!

kat

Subject: RE: Acres of Clams-WA song-please clarify
From: Haruo
Date: 29 Apr 01 - 07:47 PM

Although the geoduck only makes a cameo (in the company of butter clams and razor clams), there may be some following this thread who would enjoy Carlton Fitchett's "Ode to Puget Sound", which is discussed in this thread. (To let the thread drift in a non-mollusc non-music direction, there's also an example of Lushootseed email I recently received there. I am becoming quite the Lushootseedist.)

lilEnd (ASCII Lushootseed spelling of my name)

Subject: RE: Acres of Clams-WA song-please clarify
From: DougR
Date: 29 Apr 01 - 08:12 PM

Dick: I certainly hope there's nobody out there selling the Brooklyn Bridge these days. I bought it myself in 1952, and decided that I'm just going to hang on to it. It must be worth a lot more than what I paid for it then. I'm banking on selling it for my retirement, if that day ever comes.

dougR

Subject: RE: Acres of Clams-WA song-please clarify
From: Deckman
Date: 29 Apr 01 - 11:10 PM

I was at the T.V.station in 1959 when Ivar Haglund and Jim Stevens, of Paul Bunyon fame, did a live broadcast. It was at that show that I first heard Ivar use the phrase, "when the tides out, the tables set." CHEERS, Bob (deckman) Nelson

Subject: RE: Acres of Clams-WA song-please clarify
From: Joe_F
Date: 30 Apr 01 - 01:12 PM

Likewise, "sell" as a noun can mean a swindle, as is known to those who have sung

And now in heaven I dwell

And the truth it is to tell

That it is a bloody sell:

All the whores are down in hell --

God damn their eyes!

-- Joe Fineman

Subject: RE: Acres of Clams-WA song-please clarify
From: keberoxu
Date: 28 Dec 15 - 11:45 AM

Had the television on, a while back, and there was a special about geoducks. I forget what channel. Harvesting them turned into a big deal, the narrator explained, when the Far East countries learned of them. Geoducks are exported there, for the same reasons and the same buyers who value tiger penis soup and other black-market aphrodisiacs.

And half a lifetime ago, I was I know not where when the radio was on, and there, big as life, came the Gooey Duck song. Only heard it the once. Talk about earworms! Gotta Dig A Duck, Gotta Dig A Duck A Day....it's been stuck in the grey matter ever since. It was the longest time before I found out what kind of ducks they were digging for.