Ask Mr. Know-It-All

Try a blind pig for a strong drink

By Gary Clothier

Q: What is a “blind pig”? In a book I’m read­ing set dur­ing Pro­hi­bi­tion, a cou­ple goes to a blind pig, which sounds like a speakeasy to me. — D.M., Long Beach, Calif.

A: Dur­ing Pro­hi­bi­tion, a blind pig (or blind tiger) was an ille­gal bar. Blind pigs dif­fered from speakeasies in that only liquor was offered — there was no music or danc­ing. The term orig­i­nated in the U.S. in the 19th cen­tury. A speakeasy was usu­ally a higher-class estab­lish­ment that offered food and enter­tain­ment. A blind pig was a lower-class estab­lish­ment where the saloon oper­a­tor would charge cus­tomers to see an attrac­tion, pos­si­bly an ani­mal, and then serve a com­pli­men­tary alco­holic beverage.

Q: I saw a young lady with a nifty T-shirt with a mes­sage writ­ten in script. I could read only the first of the three lines: “Love all.” I could not make out the next two lines, and I didn’t want to stare for obvi­ous rea­sons. Is this enough infor­ma­tion for you to tell me the whole mes­sage? — H.L., Mason City, Iowa

A: It sounds as if you saw a quote from William Shake­speare, “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.” The line is from the Bard’s play “All’s Well That Ends Well.” The advice is as wor­thy today as it was more than 400 years ago when it was written.

Q: What hap­pened to Kristy McNi­chol? Does she still act? Didn’t she have a brother who is also an actor? — M.L., Hart­ford, Ky.

A: Kristy McNi­chol is the sis­ter of child actor Jimmy McNi­chol. In 1998, McNi­chol was diag­nosed with bipo­lar dis­or­der and retired from act­ing. She teaches act­ing and is involved with char­i­ties. She came out as a les­bian in Jan­u­ary to help peo­ple deal­ing with bullying.

Q: The theme song to Sun­day night foot­ball is my all-time favorite. It’s sung by coun­try music sweet­heart Faith Hill. I was sur­prised to hear the song on the radio, but with dif­fer­ent words. I’m think­ing the foot­ball song is an adap­ta­tion of a pre­vi­ous song. Am I cor­rect? — G.L., West Baby­lon, N.Y.

A: You are cor­rect. “Wait­ing All Day for Sun­day Night” is based on the Joan Jett clas­sic “I Hate Myself for Lov­ing You” (1988). In 2006, singer Pink sang the theme song for the first time. In 2007, Faith Hill replaced Pink as the singer of the open­ing theme.

Q: Is it true that the Statler Broth­ers gospel group got its name from Statler Tis­sue Co.? If so, in what year? — E.M.T., West­ern­port, Md.

A: The Statler Broth­ers got their name from a tis­sue box in a hotel room. The group began in 1955 in Staunton, Va. It was orig­i­nally called the Four Star Quar­tet. At the time, the group was singing gospel music in churches. Later, it changed its name to the Kings­men. In 1963, another group called the Kings­men had a hit record, “Louie, Louie,” so the group changed its name again to the Statler Broth­ers, thanks to the tissues.

Q: Otis Red­ding sang about sit­tin’ on the dock of the bay. Where was the dock? — J.L.M., Ash­land, Ore.

A: Dur­ing the sum­mer of 1967, Red­ding was per­form­ing at San Francisco’s Fill­more West. Dur­ing this time, he was stay­ing on a house­boat on the San Fran­cisco Bay. While there, he wrote “(Sit­tin’ On) The Dock of the Bay.” He recorded the song in early Decem­ber, and it was released shortly after his death, on Jan. 8, 1968.

Otis Red­ding died Dec. 10, 1967, when his char­ter plane crashed into a lake out­side Madi­son, Wis. Red­ding and sev­eral oth­ers were killed. He was 26.

(Send your ques­tions to Mr. Know-It-All at AskMrKIA@gmail.com or c/o Uni­ver­sal Uclick, 1130 Wal­nut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.)

Posted by Guest 2 Columnist on Oct 23 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.