{"id":3811,"date":"2007-02-10T11:41:46","date_gmt":"2007-02-10T19:41:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kith.org\/journals\/neology\/2007\/02\/10\/what-a-todo-to-die-today.html"},"modified":"2023-07-15T09:48:02","modified_gmt":"2023-07-15T16:48:02","slug":"what-a-todo-to-die-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/2007\/02\/10\/what-a-todo-to-die-today\/","title":{"rendered":"What a to-do to die today"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<p style=\"color: white; background-color: red; padding: 10px;\">Note added in 2020: We\u2019ve found the source and context of the first piece listed here, the \u201cWhat a to-do to die today\u201d one. For details, see comments on this post. Please don\u2019t post any further guesses about this piece; we now know where it came from, what the real words are, and what it means in context.<\/p>\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n<p>Someone just encountered my 1997 Words &amp; Stuff column on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/1997\/02\/02\/elocution\/\">elocution<\/a> and wrote me to ask about elocution.  Which led me to look at the column again, which led me to the following warmup exercise:<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>What a to-do to die today, at a minute or two to two;<\/p>\r\n<p>a thing distinctly hard to say, but harder still to do.<\/p>\r\n<p>We'll beat a tattoo, at twenty to two<\/p>\r\n<p>a rat-tat-tat- tat-tat-tat- tat-tat-tattoo<\/p>\r\n<p>and the dragon will come when he hears the drum<\/p>\r\n<p>at a minute or two to two today, at a minute or two to two.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>And I'm still curious about where that comes from, so I Googled it.  Sadly, all the online information I can find about it indicates that it's simply a vocal warmup exercise, not a quote from something.<\/p>\r\n<p>Which seems unlikely to me.  The dragon line isn't particularly hard to say and doesn't contain any particularly unusual speech sounds; if this really were simply a warmup exercise, I doubt that line would be there.  There's also more backstory\/plot than in most warmup exercises.<\/p>\r\n<p>So I remain steadfast in my belief that it's a quote from something.  But what?  Anyone have any ideas?<\/p>\r\n<p>As noted in the addenda page for the column, it's not from <cite>The Court Jester<\/cite>.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"color: white; background-color: red; padding: 10px;\">Added in 2020: It turns out to be from a comic opera called <cite>Merrie England<\/cite>, written by Edward German in 1902. For more details, see comments on this post.<\/p>\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n<p>The search for info on that did lead me to another tongue-twister\/warmup I hadn't encountered before:<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>Give me the gift of a grip-top sock,<\/p>\r\n<p>A clip drape shipshape tip-top sock--<\/p>\r\n<p>Not your spinslick slapstick slipshod stock,<\/p>\r\n<p>But a plastic, elastic grip-top sock.<\/p>\r\n<p>None of your fantastic slack swap slop <\/p>\r\n<p>From a slapdash flash cash haberdash shop;<\/p>\r\n<p>Not a knickknack knitlock knock-kneed knickerbocker sock<\/p>\r\n<p>With a mock-shot blob-mottled trick-ticker top clock;<\/p>\r\n<p>Not a rucked up, puckered up, flop top sock,<\/p>\r\n<p>Nor a super-sheer seersucker rucksack sock;<\/p>\r\n<p>Not a spot-speckled frog-freckled cheap sheik's sock<\/p>\r\n<p>Off a hodgepodge moss-blotched scotch-botched block;<\/p>\r\n<p>Nothing slipshod, drip drop, flip flop, or glip glop;<\/p>\r\n<p>Tip me to a tip-top grip-top sock.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>I cobbled that version together from various web sources.  I wonder if that, too, might be a quote from something; anyone know?<\/p>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Someone just encountered my 1997 Words &amp; Stuff column on elocution and wrote me to ask about elocution. Which led me to look at the column again, which led me&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tongue-twisters"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3811"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3811\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18600,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3811\/revisions\/18600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}