GR translation: do the Tootsie Roll

[malignd at aol.com]

Small point.  The lyrics are "in (not with) a big black devil's food cake."  Which suggests something playful and innocent, at least at face value, like a flume ride.  Changing "in" to "with" is probably not accidental and one can reasonably infer that this was intentional. 



-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
To: David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>
Cc: Pynchon Mailing List <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Tue, Dec 17, 2013 3:19 am
Subject: Re: GR translation: do the Tootsie Roll



Right.  But it's also a line in the lyrics of the Shirley Temple song "On the Good Ship Lollipop", which Bianca sang earlier.  I'm just wandering what the phrase "do the Tootsie Roll" means in that song.  Or maybe it's just childish nonsense?


According to Cassell's Dictionary of Slang, Tootsie Roll was slang for penis in the 1920s, and came to mean marijuana cigarette in the 1960s.  But that can't be what they are originally talking about in a children's song, can it?


Apparently it also refers to a dance that started by a song "Tootsee Roll", but that didn't happen until the 1990s.




On Mon, Dec 16, 2013 at 8:16 AM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:

Sugar bowl is white substance container.
Devil's food cake is chocolate.
Tootsie Roll is phallic chocolate.
To "roll" with someone can mean sex.


It's just a silly phrase Slothrop uses to forget about leaving the hash behind.


On Monday, December 16, 2013, Mike Jing  wrote:


V493.7-14   . . . Otto has a tin can of honest-to-God Bohnenkaffee simmering. “First I’ve had in a while,” Slothrop scorching his mouth.
       “Black market,” purrs the Silent Otto. “Good business to be in.”
       “I was in it for a while. . . .” Oh, yes, and he’s left the last of that Bodine hashish, hasn’t he, several fucking ounces in fact, back on the Anubis, wasn’t that clever. See the sugar bowl do the Tootsie Roll with the big, bad, Devil’s food cake— 
       “Nice morning,” Otto remarks.


What is the meaning of "do the Tootsie Roll" in the original song, On the Good Ship Lollipop?  Or is it just nonsensical?







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