Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Finally--Why I spelled it "Smokey"

Posted by Rosie at 7:01 PM

I've got a belly full of raw fish and rice and some animes to watch tonight--I tell you, life is good.

A new reader emailed me today with the question I've been waiting to answer since 2003 when I set the blog up.

Lowell writes:

I just found this very interesting website and have been reading and enjoying a lot of the articles but have to wonder why in your narrative you spell "Smoky" the way it is supposed to be spelled (at least the accepted, official spelling), but the heading on the website and at other places throughout, it is incorrectly spelled "Smokey?"


Y'all were just being so polite all this time while thinking to yourself, "Poor old Rosie--she's misspelled 'Smoky.'"

My answer:

The "Smokey Mountain Breakdown" is the name of an old Appalachian song--a "breakdown" is a type of instrumental arrangement consisting of a series of solos by different instruments on the theme of a melody--like The Foggy Mountain Breakdown or the Bluegrass Breakdown. This particular breakdown was a favorite of my grandfather's and it does have an "e" in the spelling. I used it when I set the blog up because I liked the various connotations in the name...since I basically deconstructed myself when I adopted the mountain lifestyle as my own--much as the melody is deconstructed to create a breakdown arrangement.
I may have truly misspelled in elsewhere since I have to type the blog name out all of the time and it has become a habit.

 

7 Comments:

  1. Cappy said...
    3/19/2008  
    Sounds very Japanese.
    Mike Golch said...
    3/19/2008  
    Rosey,I guess I'm dumb because if someone had asked me to spell smokey this is how I would spell it,but than again spelling has never been my strong suit. This is my story and I'm sticking to it!
    Kristin said...
    3/20/2008  
    and there i was thinking YOU had a breakdown...

    I like blue grass : )

    yay for fish!
    Goat Yoda said...
    3/20/2008  
    They have DSL here where we are now- it is supposed to be out of the Hartford switch, so you may be able to get it too- BUT the big thing for us is that that they want us to change our phone number to get it- NO F*%&ing way!

    They keep saying it is not possible to put it on our existing number, which is soooo not true- thus sayeth my husband the phone guy-, but I told them that they had better put it on our existing number or I'd go right to the FCC and sell our ATT stock.

    Let's see where this goes.....
    Granny Sue said...
    3/20/2008  
    Ah, now all is made clear. I have wondered the same thing but assumed you had a reason. I'm into oldtime music but don't think I've heard this tune. I'll have to find it.

    Thank you for explaining!
    Nancy said...
    3/22/2008  
    I had figured that's why you'd used the title. Didn't know it was a question. How're the submissions coming?
    Unknown said...
    3/22/2008  
    Well I must be smarter than the average 'Smoky Mountain Bar' because I associated your blog title with the music and knew that was how it was spelled.

    Now that the question has been posed, you can take a sigh of relief....right?? lol

    Have a great weekend.

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