Subj : Re: Todays Classic Ad
To   : mark lewis
From : Dennis Katsonis
Date : Tue Jan 25 2022 20:29:00

-=> mark lewis wrote to Dennis Katsonis <=-

 ml> @MSGID: <61ED3851.2381.fidomemories@bbs.mozysswamp.org>
 ml> @REPLY: <61ECA072.2379.fidomemories@bbs.mozysswamp.org>

 ml>  On 2022 Jan 23 11:09:00, you wrote to me:

 DK>> I have to ask, what is Burma-Shave?

 ml>> https://www.google.com/search?q=what+is+burma+shave

 ml>> ;)

 DK> Yes, I know it can be "googled"... *sigh*
 DK> The reason I asked was because a human being could give me context
 DK> that Silicon Valleys BS algorithms can't.

 ml> what context is needed other than the definition of what Burma Shave
 ml> is/was?

 ml> "Burma-Shave was an American brand of brushless shaving cream, famous
 ml> for its advertising gimmick of posting humorous rhyming poems on small
 ml> sequential highway roadside signs."

 DK> Is this a reference to the product, or the Tom Waits music?

 ml> the product... why? because all of the Burma Shave quotes are from the
 ml> signs seen on the roadsides from back in the day...

 ml> the Tom Waits song, Burma-Shave, appears to be done in the style of the
 ml> Burms Shave roadside signs... it is, however, different from the
 ml> original Burma Shave song written by Roger Miller in 1961 and covered
 ml> by several other artists/groups...


 ml> FWIW: all of the above was gleaned in about 10 minutes from exactly
 ml> that original google search link i presented ;)

 I'm Australian, so all this is new to me.  Burma-shave appears in every Ad of
the Day, so it must be important I presume.  I never actually heard of it
before, unlike many other American ads I can identify.  So to me, it seems to
have a special relevance here on Fidonet.  Which is why I asked people here.

I mean, if you saw me on a message board with other Aussies saying "Ridgey
Didge" you COULD google what it means, but it doesn't answer why we
specifically, in that forum you are in, are saying it.  (especially if you
haven't actually hard other Aussies say it).


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