Showing posts with label Wikipedia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wikipedia. Show all posts

Thursday, October 02, 2008

John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt


John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt is a traditional children's song of obscure origin. Its lyrics are:

John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt,
His name is my name too.
Whenever we go out
The people always shout,
"There goes John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt."
da, da, da, da, da, da, da
John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt,
His name is my name too... (repeat ad infinitum)
The song is commonly sung by young children at communal outings such as long bus rides and Boy Scout or Girl Scout outings. It's also a classic informal parade song in Pennsylvania.[citation needed]

The mock German name celebrated in the song suggests that some English speakers still find longer northern-European names to be inherently funny words; compare the Blinkenlights faxlore in which English words are deformed to form a pseudo-German warning text. The surname Schmidt and the surname suffix -heimer are of Germanic origin. Schmidt is one of the most common last names in German heritage.

Part of the appeal of the song seems to be its infinite loop, presenting the opportunity to turn a potentially intolerably long wait into an informal psychological experiment with the idea of infinitude and the infinite-loop motif. Compare "The Song That Never Ends", "My Name is Jan Jansen" and "High Hopes".

Each repetition is sung more quietly than the previous, except for the final line which is sung at full volume. The "last" repetition is sung in pantomime; typically the final line is then shouted as loud as possible.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Pangrams


"The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" is a 35-letter pangram (a phrase that uses all the letters of the alphabet) that has been used to test typewriters and computer keyboards because it is nicely coherent and short.

In Windows XP, an alternative message Jackdaws love my big sphinx of quartz. 123456890 is added.
Adapted from Wikipedia
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There also exist perfect pangrams, where every letter is used only once.

These are some without proper nouns, acronyms, or abbreviations:
Veldt jynx grimps waqf zho buck. (A grasslands wryneck Woodpecker climbs onto a male bovid on Muslim land held in trust. - created by Michael Jones)
Junky qoph-flags vext crwd zimb. (An Abyssinian fly playing a Celtic violin was annoyed by trashy flags on which were the Hebrew letter qoph.)
Cwm fjord bank glyphs vext quiz. (Carved symbols in a mountain hollow and on the bank of a fjord irritated an eccentric person.)
Squdgy fez, blank jimp crwth vox! (A short brimless felt hat barely blocks out the sound of a Celtic violin. - created by Claude Shannon)

Confused? Here are some with proper nouns, acronyms, or abbreviations that'll make it more readable:
PR flacks quiz gym: TV DJ box when?
NBC glad. Why? Fox TV jerks quiz PM.
Blowzy night-frumps vex'd Jack Q.
Glum Schwartzkopf vex'd by NJ IQ.

Err, maybe not. =]
Adapted from Wikipedia