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"Speckled and Noisy" eh?
And refering to my post.
Are you calling me a Drongo?
Now listen here cobber,
MY 'SPANGLED' DRONGO CAN WHIP YOUR 'SPECKLED' DRONGO ANYDAY
So there.
Regds Gerard
--- In amibroker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Graham" <gkavanagh@xxxx> wrote:
> Now you have my curiosity. Being a downunder Ozzie I checked my
Ozzie
> encyclopaedia.
>
> Speckled Drongo - " and is active and noisy - perhaps the reason
for its use
> as a term of derision in Australian slang"
>
> Another reference suggests the term comes from the name of the
unsuccessful
> racehorse in the 1920's
>
> Cheers,
> Graham
> http://groups.msn.com/asxsharetrading
> http://groups.msn.com/fmsaustralia
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Gerard Carey [mailto:gcfinance@x...]
> Sent: Thursday, 4 December 2003 7:59 AM
> To: AB Yahoo group
> Subject: [amibroker] "YOU SPANGLED DRONGO!" ... I think not.
>
>
> In reply to Perry Lentine's query (53518) as to the meaning of the
term
> "Drongo", I would acknowledge the helpful contributions from Paul
Chivers
> (53521) and the always informative Dimitris, Pass the Rosetta Stone,
> Tsokakis (53527) in the "AmiBroker or Metastock ?" thread.
>
> I feel however that the waters have been somewhat muddied by the
plethora of
> information supplied so it is my intention, indeed my duty, as the
original
> user of the term (53511), to clarify the situation.
>
> It is my contention that Drongo, in the sense that I used it, is an
> Australia slang term used to describe a 'fool', a 'stupid person', a
> 'simpleton'.
>
> Yes there is indeed a bird called a Drongo as confirmed by Paul and
> Dimitris.
> A short explananation would, and indeed does, state that the
Spangled Drongo
> is found in northern and eastern Australia, as well as in the
islands to the
> north of Australia, and further north to India and China. It is
called a
> Drongo because that is the name of a bird from the same family in
northern
> Madagascar.
>
> It has been suggested that the origin of the association, by
Austalians, of
> 'stupidity' with the term Drongo, comes from the fact that the bird
appears
> to migrate to colder regions in winter. I am unable to verify
this 'origin
> of association' and who really cares about the migratory habits of
the
> aforesaid bird. Stuff it I say.
>
> Before attempting to proffer the generally held Antipodean theory
regarding
> the "Drongo-Stupidity" association I would offer the following
fieldwork
> report for your perusal.
>
> In eavesdropping on Australians in conversational mode I have not,
as yet,
> heard the expression,
>
> "YOU SPANGLED DRONGO!" ........used.
> Almost without exception the prefered expression is,
> "YOU BLOODY DRONGO!".
>
> This expression is delivered in either of two ways;
> 1. In an agitated manner in a high volume and pitch and often
accompanied by
> the agitated waving of hands and threats of violence.
> My belief is that this delivery signifies anger.
> 2. In an exasperated manner in a low volume and pitch and
accompanied by the
> slow shaking of the head from side to side.
> My belief is that this delivery signifies frustration.
>
> Now, my further research, of a more clinical nature, finds thats
there was
> an Australian racehorse named Drongo (presumably after the
aforesaid bird),
> racing during the early 1920s.
> He was a bay horse by Lanius-Lys d'Or, and, according to the
Australasian
> Turf Register, he had 5 starts in 923, 15 starts in 1924, and 17
starts in
> 1925.
>
> In 1924 a writer in the Melbourne Argus comments:
> "Drongo is sure to be a very hard horse to beat. He is improving
with every
> run".
> In all, Drongo competed in 37 races.
> He never did win.
>
> Soon after the horse's retirement it seems that racegoers started
to apply
> the term to horses that were having similarly unlucky careers. It
appears
> that the term gradually became more negative, perhaps helped by
Cartoonist
> Sammy Wells, then of the Melbourne "Herald", who apparently adopted
Drongo
> as a character in his political and sporting cartoons. In these
cartoons
> Drongo was the no-hoper in any and every situation. and was applied
also to
> people who were not so much 'unlucky' as 'hopeless cases' , 'no-
hopers', and
> thereafter 'fools'.
>
> I would also note reports that in the 1940s it was applied to
recruits in
> the Royal Australian Air Force, but the Aussies will only get mad
at us if
> we spread that kind of inuendo so we better shut up about it.
Forget that
> you read this paragraph.
>
> Buzz Kennedy, writing in "The Australian" newspaper in 1977,
defines a
> drongo thus:
> "A drongo is a simpleton but a complicated one: he is a simpleton
of the
> sort who not only falls over his feet but does so at Government
House; who
> asks his future mother-in-law to pass "the-magic-word" salt the
first time
> the girl asks him home.... In an emergency he runs heroically in
the wrong
> direction. If he were Superman he would get locked in the telephone
box. He
> never wins. So he is a drongo".
>
> The origin of the term was revived at the Melbourne racecourse
Flemington in
> 1977 when a Drongo Handicap was held. Only apprentice jockeys were
allowed
> to ride. The horses entered were not allowed to have won a race in
the
> previous twelve months.
>
> I DON'T WANT TO LET THE TRUTH GET IN THE WAY OF A GOOD STORY BUT,
> As it happens he wasn't an absolute no-hoper of a racehorse.
> He ran second in a VRC Derby and St Leger, third in the AJC St
Leger, and
> fifth in the 1924 Sydney Cup.
> He often came very close to winning major races.
> But he never won a race.
>
> I guess there's a moral here somewhere?
> If you find it let me know,
>
> Regds Gerard
> Ps. I'm not an Aussie. I just live here.
>
> --
> http://www.fastmail.fm - IMAP accessible web-mail
>
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