Monday, December 10, 2018

Everyone has things they like, and don't like

"It all depends on whose ox is being gored" is an old expression from the days when people actually had oxen and someone else came along to gore them.  It dates back to Exodus in the Bible and represents payment in compensation to the rightful owner of the gored ox.

I need some of my avid Bible quoters to tell me just why people went around goring other peoples' bovines. Today, I guess a similar quotation would be "It all depends on whose Chevy Eclipse is being backed into in front of McDonalds."  If that's your car, you're in for some money if you can catch the bad driver who fricaseed your fender and lumped your bumper.

I got to thinking about that old quote the other day when I saw an uproar brewing on social media about the old song, "Baby It's Cold Outside." You've heard the song - it's one of those "naughty" numbers from the World War II era, written by Frank Loesser (pronounced "lesser"), and there are those who feel, with some justification, that the song, which depicts a man plying a woman with sketchy drinks during a snowstorm in hopes she will have to spend the night, depicts an assault. 

If you happen to be a person who was ever the victim of a roofie or a spiked drink and an unwanted seduction which was really date rape, you might not feel that the song is a lighthearted little duet for the holiday season.  You may very well, in that situation, be repulsed by the song and not wish to hear it. 

I can understand that, and it's been sad to see people getting all worked up because some radio stations, in response to complaints, have pulled the song from their holiday playlists.

I say it's sad, because the people getting all wack jack about the song and calling those who are bothered by a song glorifying sexual assault "snowflakes," the jejune term meant to demean people who have feelings.

But in many cases, those wack jackers are the same people who get their knickers in a wad over football players protesting, meaning that it's bad to protest a song, but ok to protest a protester.

Everyone has things that bother them, things they would sooner not have to hear about or see, and it says here that it would be a better world if we stepped aside to give others a little room to get by with what they're carrying around.
Broadway composer Frank Loesser and his wife and musical partner Lynn are shown, April 26, 1956 in New York. Their song "Baby, It's Cold Outside" was originally a song they performed for friends at their housewarming party. (AP Photo/Anthony Camerano)
By the way, Frank Loesser and his wife, Lynn (above) performed the song at countless parties and recitals back in the day among the hundreds of other songs he wrote and popularized. Frank referred to himself humorously as "the evil of two Loessers."


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