Just heard a report on NPR this evening about playwright Tom Jones re-writing a song to do away with one word in his play, "The Fantastiks." I like that play, not the least because I played Bellamy, the father of the girl, in the first production of a new community theater group in Sidney. I think I can almost still sing the "plant a radish, get a radish" song. Anyway, just to show the sensibilities of people over the last 50 years and the evolving use of words--he's re-writing the song where El Gallo convinces the fathers that they don't want a simple abduction, they want a "rape." It's quite a song. However, back then he was playing off a literary conceit (a la the poem "Rape of the Lock"). Now, we never use the term in the latter sense and since we don't take crimes against women the same way they did 100 years ago. So, his new production starting shortly will feature a new song. I'll have to try to get there to see it.
9:41:09 PM 
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