Seems perfectly reasonable to me, at 2 cents a cake. If he couldn't eat 6,
why waste one? It's easier to pay with a dime, too.
Simon.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lewis Becker" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2003 4:06 AM
Subject: Re: The Fishball Song


> Loesser, "Humor in American Song" at p.298 refers to "the famous "Lone
> Fish Ball" composed about 1854."   He says, Under the title is added the
> interesting information, "Founded on a Boston Fact." He adds, "In
> Carmina Collegiensa, one of the earliest anthologies, there is further
> appended an affecting tale of a New York professor who made a nuisance
> of himself in his habitual restaurant because he always wanted more than
> one portion of three buckwheat cakes for six cents, but less than two
> portions for twelve. He insisted on five buckwhjeat cakes for ten cents,
> drove everybody wild, and finally had to stay away from the restaurant
> altogether.
>
> Lew Becker
>
> Lewis Becker
> Professor of Law
> Villanova University School of Law
> (610.519.7074)
> (Fax - 610.519.5672)
> >>> [log in to unmask] 12/09/03 6:17 PM >>>
> An extremelypopular song in the early0middle 19th Century, in the US at
> least. F.J. Childs was sufficiently impressed by it to have written a
> mock-opera entitle Il Pescobello. It appeared in several college
> songbooks in the pre-WWI years; reached a high level of popularity in
> the 1940s when Josh White transmogrified it to "One Meat Ball" and added
> a health dose of blues.
>
> Still a good song.
>
> dick greenhaus
>
> Mary Seymour wrote:
>
> >Recently I was at a family funeral and once most of the mourners had
> departed, the daughters (respectable women in late middle age) sang the
> following as a tribute to their father since it was a song with which he
> had amused them - and infuriated their mother - during their childhood
> and beyond.
> >
> >It is clearly some kind of ballad, though whether Music Hall, Camp Fire
> or Student Common Room, I couldn't say.
> >I would be very interested if any of the List know it, know of it, can
> say where it originates and if they know any alternative words.
> >
> >I can't begin to represent the tune, only say that each couplet is sung
> twice. The first time the last syllable is drawn out on 3 notes (down up
> down) and the second time it is sung on one final note.
> >
> >It clearly predates the Credit Card! And might it be American since
> Fish Fingers are more usual over here ? Yet half pence are British
> pre-decimal coinage.
> >
> >The Fish Ball Song
> >
> >There was a man, walked up and down
> >To see what he could find in town.
> >
> >He came unto a gorgeous place
> >And entered in with modest grace.
> >
> >He drew his purse his pocket hence
> >And found he had but five half pence.
> >
> >He scanned the menu through and through
> >To see what five half pence would do.
> >
> >The only thing 'twould do at all
> >Was o( - o - o - o - )ne fish ball.
> >
> >He called the waiter up the hall
> >And softly whispered "One fish ball."
> >
> >The waiter bellowed down the hall:
> >"THIS GEN'LEMAM HERE WANTS ONE FISH BALL!"
> >
> >The wretched man felt ill at ease
> >And softly whispered: "Bread, sir, [if you] please!"
> >
> >The waiter bellowed down the hall:
> >"YOU GET NO BREAD WITH ONE FISH BALL!"
> >
> >There is a moral to it all:
> >YOU GET NO BREAD WITH ONE FISH BALL.
> >
> >
> >Mary Seymour
> >
>