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12 Aug 2005, 13:56
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#1
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I am an idiot
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 2,145
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Cake Walk
Does anyone know the origins of the phrase 'Cake Walk'?
Or maybe 'Take the Biscuit'?
Or even 'A Piece of Cake' for that matter?
Any ideas?
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12 Aug 2005, 14:00
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#2
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Gone
Join Date: Jan 2001
Posts: 14,656
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Re: Cake Walk
Type in 'Eytomology' into a search engine or library computer.
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12 Aug 2005, 14:05
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#3
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Miles Teg
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Dom City
Posts: 5,192
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Re: Cake Walk
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marilyn Manson
Type in 'Eytomology' into a search engine or library computer.
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Did you mean: Etymology
If you want to be the allknowing bastard, at least do it properly
__________________
Audentes Fortuna Iuvat
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12 Aug 2005, 14:06
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#4
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Gone
Join Date: Jan 2001
Posts: 14,656
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Re: Cake Walk
Sorry Hans. Liquid lunch.
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12 Aug 2005, 14:21
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#5
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Miles Teg
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Dom City
Posts: 5,192
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Re: Cake Walk
At least we helped him together
__________________
Audentes Fortuna Iuvat
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12 Aug 2005, 14:37
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#6
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BlueTuba
Join Date: Aug 2000
Posts: 6,339
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Re: Cake Walk
it's a confectioner conspiracy!
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"Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life."
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12 Aug 2005, 14:59
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#7
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Registered User
Join Date: Dec 2001
Posts: 482
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Re: Cake Walk
I don't know
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12 Aug 2005, 17:24
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#8
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I am an idiot
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 2,145
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Re: Cake Walk
Sword, are you aware that there is a Lion or something behind you in the 2nd picture????
Is that look on your face a look of PAIN as your legs are half bitten off???????
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12 Aug 2005, 17:59
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#9
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USS Oklahoma
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 2,500
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Re: Cake Walk
When I googled cakewalk it came up with a link to the University of Virginia http://xroads.virgina.edu/~UG03/lucas/cake.html from google I got to the link just fine but when I tried to post it it didn't work. If the link doesn't work then try google and look for this entry. Turns out it comes out of slavery.
__________________
Ignorance is curable, stupidity is not.
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13 Aug 2005, 21:34
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#10
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Aardvark is a funny word
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: I'm No Nino Rota
Posts: 5,923
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Re: Cake Walk
i was going to comment on the slavery thing because i saw an angry letter in the Metro yesterday but dda beat me to it.
BECAUSE IT'S ACTUALLY FALSE!
it's from some kind of Victorian-era crazy social custom thing where you had to do a dance at parties before you could have cake but most people circumvented this by walking and calling it dancing, thus cakewalk as being something very easy.
__________________
Efficiency, efficiency they say
Get to know the date and tell the time of day
As the crowds begin complaining
How the Beaujolais is raining
Down on darkened meetings on the Champs Élysées
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14 Aug 2005, 00:36
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#11
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USS Oklahoma
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 2,500
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Re: Cake Walk
Evidently the University of Virgina also is under the impression that is was a slavery thing, so I am at least in good company.
__________________
Ignorance is curable, stupidity is not.
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14 Aug 2005, 00:47
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#12
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overtired
Join Date: Aug 2003
Posts: 5,900
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Re: Cake Walk
if the people walking for the cake were slaves, then you're both right
Quote:
Originally Posted by etymonline.com
1863, Amer.Eng., from cake (n.) + walk, probably in ref. to the cake given as a prize for the fanciest steps in a procession in a Southern black custom (explained by Richard H. Thornton, 1912, as, "A walking competition among negroes," in which the prize cake goes to "the couple who put on most style"). Its figurative meaning of "something easy" (1863) is recorded before the literal one (1879).
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dictionary.com
A 19th-century public entertainment among African Americans in which walkers performing the most accomplished or amusing steps won cakes as prizes.
A strutting dance, often performed in minstrel shows.
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15 Aug 2005, 10:13
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#13
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I am an idiot
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 2,145
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Re: Cake Walk
I have a mate called Chalkie who's from a family of old american slaves and he confirms that Cake Walk definately is in reference to people having to dance for their Mr Kiplings.
You learn something every day in this life.
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