GRGR 31 Shit'n'Shinola (is Re: Eminem (was: Influenced by GR?)

[Paul Mackin]

On Sat, 29 Jul 2000 KXX4493553 at aol.com wrote:

> "Shit & Shinola" in connection with "shoe shine boy" for someone for whom  
> English is a foreign language is a complete different "feeling of language". 
> What I associate with "shoe shining" is that shoes are "shining like the 
> sun". In connection with shit it sounds obscene or ridiculous. In German we 
> say "Schutzputzerjunge" which only means "a boy who is cleaning shoes"; 
> nothing else. It's sounding trivial.
> kwp
> 

Shining is just another word for cleaning, waxing and polishing. Boy
doesn't necessary imply junge. A shoe shine boy can be an old man. When
it's applied to one of African origin it's  considered a racial slur. 
Black waiters and porters on trains were in the past called boy. As in the
song Chattanooga Choo-Choo. Pardon me boy, is that the Chattanooga
Choo-Choo? (GR p 468)


I could be wrong but as far as I know Pynchon invented the way shit and
shinola (as in not knowing shit from shinola) is connected in the book to 
shoeshineboys completely out of his own imagination. The traditional
connection between the first two terms has nothing to do with
shoeshine boys. There has never been any kind of synonymity involved that
I've heard of. Someone please advise it that's not the case.

Just say Shinola (not mentioning shit) to any American of a certain age
and they will immediatelty think of shit from shinola. Just now I asked my
housemate if she remembered what the product shinola was and she said yes,
and that her girl friends would say of dumb boys who didn't know which end
was up that they didn't know shit from shinola.

I'm running this thing into the ground now.

			P.