tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893219718076521675.post5151634191882651338..comments2024-03-29T07:30:04.950-04:00Comments on pancocojams: Muhammad Ali's "Float Like A Butterfly Sting Like A Bee" Line & Its Use In "Fly Girl" Foot Stomping CheersAzizi Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14963772326145910073noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893219718076521675.post-30047966441140833322016-06-15T10:48:28.172-04:002016-06-15T10:48:28.172-04:00Here's some information that was sent to me ab...Here's some information that was sent to me about the term "fly girl":<br /><br />"I looked up "fly girl" in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) to see if it had historical antecedents. It has. More Regency slang it seems - it's strange that an era associated with Jane Austen's prose also created so much surviving slang!<br /><br />"Fly:. Knowing, wide-awake, sharp. fly to (anything): 'up' to, well acquainted with, clever at."<br />1811 Lexicon Balatronicum (at cited word), Fly..The rattling cove is fly; the coachman knows what we are about.<br /><br />1825 C. M. Westmacott Eng. Spy II. 5 You are fly to cant.<br /><br />1851 H. Mayhew London Labour II. 109/2 We're rather ‘fly to a dodge’.<br /><br />1853 Dickens Bleak House xvi. 159 ‘I am fly,’ says Jo.<br /><br />Also has an entry on a specifically American usage from 1859, a 'fly cop', an adroit and able officer. "<br /><br />-snip-<br /><br />Thanks to the pancocojams reader for sending me that information.<br /><br />I'm very surprised that that meaning of "fly" is so old. <br /><br />But, in retrospect, old words and phrases get recycled all the time, on purpose or by accident since there's nothing new under the sun.Azizi Powellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14963772326145910073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893219718076521675.post-55300624237134033542016-06-07T08:12:27.552-04:002016-06-07T08:12:27.552-04:00But Muhammad Ali's boasts like
"Float li...But Muhammad Ali's boasts like <br />"Float like a butterfly<br />Sting like a bee<br />George’s hands can't hit what his eyes can't see. <br />Now you see me, now you don't.<br />He thinks he will, but I know he won't."...<br /><br />are proof that Muhammad Ali also planned how he would fight and showed that he could successfully carry out those plans.Azizi Powellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14963772326145910073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893219718076521675.post-43854308361103871042016-06-06T06:16:39.771-04:002016-06-06T06:16:39.771-04:00Yes, slam 2011, I agree that Muhammad Ali was a ma...Yes, slam 2011, I agree that Muhammad Ali was a man who wasn't afraid to stand up for what he believed.<br /><br />I wanted to share my memories of Muhammad Ali at that cultural presentation as it certainly changed my perception of that celebrity. As a result of that exchange that I described, I realized how intelligent Muhammad Ali was; how quick he could think on his feet. <br /><br />But then again, if I had been more knowledgeable about his boxing meets, I probably would have realized that Ali thought quick on his feet during those fights.Azizi Powellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14963772326145910073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893219718076521675.post-83504363290966056502016-06-06T03:37:18.816-04:002016-06-06T03:37:18.816-04:00That's a wonderful memory, to have been actual...That's a wonderful memory, to have been actually part of historic events (and that's not an overblown description, there was indeed a major cultural shift occurring: Ali may have been a spearhead, but everyone present must have changed a little). <br /><br />I also had thought that a man of Ali's charisma and conviction might easily have become a political leader, in other circumstances. But political leaders usually can't afford the level of personal honesty that was such a big part of Ali's charm. You never felt he was spouting anything he only half-believed, which was why he commanded such respect.slam2011https://www.blogger.com/profile/03112153426493772446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893219718076521675.post-82002403612887239632016-06-05T08:58:56.248-04:002016-06-05T08:58:56.248-04:00I had first written 1970 for the year that that In...I had first written 1970 for the year that that Indiana University Black cultural program occurred. But, in thinking back, it had to have been in the fall of 1969.<br /><br />I moved to Pittsburgh in August 1969. That was the year that the University of Pitt began its Black studies program and Sonia Sanchez and her then husband Etheridge Knight and a number of other Black people, including dancer/choreographer Bob Johnson came to Pittsburgh to work at Pitt. <br /><br />During the 1970s I also met the now famous Pittsburgh playwright August Wilson. <br /><br />And that's enough name dropping for me... <br />Azizi Powellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14963772326145910073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893219718076521675.post-46847118163494391432016-06-05T08:46:19.950-04:002016-06-05T08:46:19.950-04:00I met Muhammad Ali in person in 1969.
At that ti...I met Muhammad Ali in person in 1969. <br /><br />At that time, I was living with African American poetess Sonia Sanchez and was working for her as a nanny for her toddler twin boys. <br /><br />I represented Sonia Sanchez at a weekend Black cultural event at Indiana University when she was unable to make that engagement. (I read some of Sonia Sanchez' poems, and a few of mine.) <br /><br />I wasn't aware that Muhammad Ali was also scheduled to speak at that cultural event. But when I arrived at the airport in Bloomington, Indiana there was a huge crowd surrounding someone- and that person turned out to be the charismatic heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali. <br /><br />Muhammad Ali had a limousine, and somehow it happened that other people (I recall that it wasn't just Black people) who were going to the hotel near the university were invited to join Muhammad Ali in his limo. I don't remember anything more about that ride except that I felt that Muhammad Ali loved the attention that he received, especially from the young women in that limo. (I was 20 at that time, but I was much too shy to say anything to any celebrity.)<br /><br />When we arrived at the hotel, Muhammad Ali was quickly escorted up to his room. I remember someone from his entourage inviting all those who rode in the limousine to come up to his suite. But I didn't go.<br /><br />The next day-after my presentation which I was relieved went well- I was part of a standing room only audience who attended Muhammad Ali's speech. The main thing that I remember about that speech was how articulate Muhammad Ali was. While he spoke on a wide range of subjects about Black culture, my most keen memory about that presentation was how artfully Muhammad Ali responded to a White man's question about what Muhammad Ali thought about Malcolm X. <br /><br />As background- Muhammad Ali was a Black Muslim, a follower of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam. After Malcolm X left the Nation of Islam to become a Sunni Muslim, members of the Nation of Islam were against Malcolm X. And there are even some who say that members of the Nation of Islam were responsible for Malcolm X's assassination. However, Malcolm X was Muhammad Ali's former mentor in the Nation of Islam and also was Muhammad Ali's former friend. <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2016/02/25/467247668/muhammad-ali-and-malcolm-x-a-broken-friendship-an-enduring-legacy" rel="nofollow">http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2016/02/25/467247668/muhammad-ali-and-malcolm-x-a-broken-friendship-an-enduring-legacy</a>.<br /><br />And Malcolm X was (and still is) a beloved icon for many African Americans, particularly in the year 1970 when that Indiana University Black cultural event occurred, and particularly among the young afrocentric audience that attended that university event.<br /><br />So it was definitely a loaded question for someone- particularly for someone White - to ask Muhammad Ali what he thought of Malcolm X. <br /><br />Muhammad Ali artfully answered that question by denouncing the questioner's intent. I don't remember word for word what he said, but in essence Ali called out the questioner for coming to an event which celebrated Black unity and trying to turn Black people against each other. In no uncertain terms, Muhammad Ali said that he wasn't having it -that we (Black people) weren't fighting with other Black people but we were celebrating our culture and if the man who asked that question didn't like that, he could leave. <br /><br />I remember the audience loving that answer- and I knew then that Muhammad Ali could have been a great politician if he had wanted to since he had adroitly sidestepped responding in a way that would have undoubtedly turned most of the Black people in the audience against him.<br /><br />Rest in peace- Muhammad Ali AND Malcolm X.Azizi Powellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14963772326145910073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893219718076521675.post-41046806948799815982016-06-05T06:58:23.444-04:002016-06-05T06:58:23.444-04:00Thanks for that information, slam2011
Here's ...Thanks for that information, slam2011<br /><br />Here's that hyperlink <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-36453899" rel="nofollow">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-36453899</a> Azizi Powellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14963772326145910073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893219718076521675.post-56202316175405787272016-06-05T05:17:41.139-04:002016-06-05T05:17:41.139-04:00http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-3645389...http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-36453899slam2011https://www.blogger.com/profile/03112153426493772446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893219718076521675.post-87451997283980040832016-06-05T05:14:57.133-04:002016-06-05T05:14:57.133-04:00Every front page of every newspaper in Britain tod...Every front page of every newspaper in Britain today headlines with a tribute to Muhammad Ali.slam2011https://www.blogger.com/profile/03112153426493772446noreply@blogger.com