Well, according to Brewer's, Stephen, "happy as a clam"
is a shortening of "happy as a clam at high tide": i.e.,
when no one's out there gathering them.
Hal Serving the tristate area.
Halvard Johnson
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On May 20, 2005, at 6:09 PM, Stephen Vincent wrote:
> Can you describe a "happy clam", Hal? That one always mystifies me.
> Might
> it be Midwestern in origin - like out in the Nebraska prairies and
> nostalgic
> for Dutch sea marshes circa 1870. Or an old fashioned "bathetic
> fallacy"
> example of the New Critics circa 1958. Oh, yes, I can imagine
> oysters as
> happy, growing pretty little Pearls inside. But clams? Help me.
> Or send me to Google!
>
> Stephen V
> Blog: http://stephenvincent.durationpress.com
>
>
>
>> On the other hand, some might be distressed by the general lack of
>> knowledge
>> of hip-hop among older poets. Yes, the center doesn't hold, etc.
>> Things
>> go flying
>> off in all directions. But still the world is so full of a number of
>> things I think we
>> should all be as happy as clams. Dontcha think?
>>
>> Hal Serving the tristate area.
>>
>> Halvard Johnson
>> [log in to unmask]
>> [log in to unmask]
>> website: http://home.earthlink.net/~halvard
>> blog: http://entropyandme.blogspot.com/
>>
>> On May 20, 2005, at 3:09 PM, Mark Weiss wrote:
>>
>>> One of the things I'm distressed by is the general lack of knowledge
>>> of
>>> classical music among younger poets. I think I learned a lot more
>>> about
>>> form, not to speak of sound, from devouring the canon. There's
>>> simply a
>>> lack of complexity to popular music, as lovely or exciting as some of
>>> it is.
>>>
>>> Also distressed at the general lack of knowledge of folk music, and I
>>> don't
>>> mean the music of Bob Dylan and Donovan Leitch, profound students of
>>> the
>>> tradition. It used to be one of the things that held us together as
>>> communities.
>>>
>>> My Carlos was taken to a Cailith (please, please correct my spelling)
>>> by a
>>> then girlfriend of the Belfast Irish variety. He was utterly amazed
>>> that
>>> everyone knew all the songs. In the US you'd have to go to a
>>> Protestant
>>> church to find the like, and the fare would be hymns for breakfast
>>> lunch
>>> and supper.
>>>
>>> Mark
>>>
>
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