Chrysti The Wordsmith: Jay - 1

Greetings and welcome to Christie the wordsmith George M. Cohen's 906 Broadway musical 45 minutes from Broadway tells the tale of Mary a poor country girl from provincial New Rochelle New York who unexpectedly inherits a fortune. The play's signature song describes Mary's small town family and friends. Quote If you want to see the real J delegation the place where the real Ruben's dwell. Just hop on the train at the Grand Central Station. Get off when they shout New Rochelle. Oh what a fine bunch of Ruben's. Oh what a jay atmosphere. They have whiskers like hay and imagine Broadway only 45 minutes from here. The Rubens of Cohen song are rural folk Reuben being a generic name for an 18th and 19th century country dweller. But Cohen also refers to these rustics as J's an east coast moniker linguistically coupling country people with the obstreperous bluejay. In the urban mind human Jays were unrefined bores hopelessly unfamiliar with city etiquette. This concept is reflected in the derived

verb jaywalk to cross a city street heedless of traffic rules as would a visiting J or country dweller. The term Jay Walker was first seen in print in Harper's magazine in June of 917 11 years after George M. Cohen's lyrics jibed country folks with the nickname J. Next time we'll investigate another expression starring the same avian species. Naked as a jaybird. I'm Christie the wordsmith. Christy the wordsmith is sponsored by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Zoot enterprises a high tech firm in Bozeman Montana offering challenging careers and innovative solutions for the financial services industry. Zoot web dot com.