Considering Jo Stafford’s stellar career and her versatile singing talent, it’s somewhat ironic that she won her only Grammy for a comedy record. Jonathan and Darlene Edwards were the alter egos of Jo and her husband Paul Weston. They were a dreadfully earnest — or earnestly dreadful — lounge act, with Jo’s perfect pitch helping Darlene with her tin ear utterly destroy songs with stunning off-key precision.
You’ll find a wonderfully awful collection of Jonathan and Darlene here on MySpace. The link to Jo’s label, Corinthian Records, is wrong. Use this one instead.
July 23rd, 2008
I just heard a story on the radio where the news anchor and a reporter said “sign off on” back and forth half a dozen times. Where did this, and saying “EX-actly”, come from? They’re everywhere today.
Instead of saying “he signed off on the agreement” why not just say “he signed the agreement”? And is there no word other than “exactly” that springs to mind when agreeing with someone?
At least these two turns of phrase came into the vernacular spontaneously. Others are manufactured — for example, the Rovian “boots on the ground”. I really dislike the use of that expression. Will Rovian become a descriptive term like Machiavellian?
P.S. One current expression I like, and enjoy using is, “What’s up with
that?”
July 23rd, 2008
