Some Pot
Clare Briggs
Clare Briggs is a famous cartoonist who lived from 1875 to 1930. Poems by Wilbur Nesbitt.
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It’s called sum pot because the amount of money in to the pot is equal to the sum of all the contributions. Product pots, much like pot products, are banned under federal law.Report
I didn’t know it was an Irving Berlin song, but I shouldn’t be surprised.
I imagine that most Gen Xers first heard the song in the same place I first heard it: Cartoons.
Report
Apparently the full song is called “The Near Future.” There’s a video of the lyric on YouTube, but it has no audio. I can’t find the full song, even on paid streaming services:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Near_FutureReport
Notably, although the song, a dialogue between a customer at a restaurant and a waiter who offers him only soft drinks, is clearly about Prohibition, it was written the year before Prohibition was enacted, hence the title.Report
I had no idea! Whenever I’ve heard the song sung, it was with a drunken slur.
[Man:]
How dry I am, how dry I am
It’s plain to see just why I am
No alcohol in my highball
And that is why so dry I am
Waiter, Waiter
[Waiter:]
What do you want? What do you want?
[Man:]
I’m just as thirsty as can be
[Waiter:]
What’ll you have? What’ll you have?
[Man:]
Suggest a little drink for me
[Waiter:]
Of the very finest soft drinks we have all the best
[Man:]
I don’t know a thing about them
What would you suggest?
[Waiter:]
Have a little Coca-Cola
Really, it’s a lovely drink
Percy, Clarence, Reginald, too
They will recommend it to you
Have a little Coca-Cola
It’s the very best I think
It isn’t alcoholic but you can have a frolic
If you take enough to drink
[Man:]
They are much too dry
[Waiter:]
Then how’d you like to try
Sarsaparilla, try sarsaparilla
Sarsaparilla ought to do
Rockefeller drinks sarsaparilla
And what’s good enough for Rockefeller
Is good enough for youReport
When I was a very small child watching these Saturday morning cartoons I had no trouble at all recognizing that this was a song people sang when they were drunk. No one was hiding the ball here.Report
The ball that was, I guess, being hidden was that it was a song about *NOT* being drunk (though wanting to be).
I thought it was a song about denying how one was drunk.Report
Also played in the background when some character was crawling through the desert, just like Anchors Away if they were on a ship.Report