From the “learn something new every day” department:
I received a “Happy Independence Day” e-mail yesterday with the story of Yankee Doodle and this image of a “Macaroni”, which is available on wikipedia, and I learned something new. Turns out that a “Macaroni” is not referring directly to a type of pasta, but instead to a Dandy Englishman who wore the latest Italian-influenced fashions, including big hair and big tiny three-corner hats. And a “Doodle” is a fool or simpleton. So a Yankee Doodle Dandy is a stupid unsophisticated Yankee rube who thinks that simply sticking a feather in his cap can turn him into a fashionable Macaroni.
This article and others tell the history of the song, and the tune has been around a long time, but by the 1750’s it was used by Englishmen in America to mock the poorly trained American Colonial soldiers in the French and Indian War. But the Yankee Doodle Dandies had the last laugh and adopted the song as they began to turn the tables and defeat the British during the Revolutionary War.
I plan to stick a feather in my baseball cap as I watch fireworks tonight. :)
