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Writer's pictureskiptomylou

#Skiptomylou

Updated: Apr 13, 2023


And if you do, perhaps you get what I mean...


An Amazonian Skip, Aboard a ship in the Brazilian Amazon, 2009 #SKIPTOMYLOU


Lou is an English name, perhaps short for Louis, Louise, Lucy? I think it sounds lucky as if it's something you can potentially skip to. But that's just me and my intrigue...

""Lou" - sounds like ________ and is the Chinese word for "road" in one intonation and in another more giving / forgiving intonation references the verb- to grill / bbq... and otherwise was the first syllable for my French Teacher in high school's name, Llewellyn and otherwise a very prominent name and will perk my ears hearing about my second favorite museum in Paris, La Louvre. What a treasure trove!


Meanwhile a lot of references have triggered an intrigue in the whole attempt at figuring-it-out:


Some inevitably familiar sound and brain-twitching...

Skip to My Lou" is a popular children's song.


"Skip to My (The) Lou" is a popular American partner-stealing dance from the 1840s. <<< Partner-stealing?


It was also a popular lyrical game in Abraham Lincoln's youth in southern Indiana and Kentucky (1826) with verses such as "Hurry up slow poke, do oh do", "I'll get her back in spite of you", "Gone again, what shall I do", and "I'll get another girl sweeter than you". [1]


"Skip to My Lou" is a simple game of stealing partners (or swapping partners as in square dancing). It begins with any number of couples skipping hand in hand around in a ring. A lone boy in the center of the moving circle of couples sings, "Lost my partner, what'll I do?" as the girls whirl past him. The young man in the center hesitates while he decides which girl to choose, singing, “I'll get another one just like you.” When he grasps the hand of his chosen one, the latter's partner moves to the center of the ring the game. It is an ice-breaker, providing an opportunity for the participants to get acquainted with one another and to get into a good mood. <<< Just throw a ball on the court, and break that ice...?


The "lou" in the title comes from the word "loo", a Scottish word for "love".[2][3][4] << huh...I can digg that...


"Loo" - referencing those English trowels, or that infamous water closet that comes in all shades and sizes...sounding the exact same, I have not been to Waterloo recently, but did find this interesting reference to "why do they call it the loo?" which really sparked some referential #AHA thoughts...

https://kottke.org/05/02/loo-etymology .


To me, I've always thought of the lou as a beat. A quiet, internal, beating like a heart- and a familiarity with a touch of "carino", a dash of dusk when the lights are all too bright, a strange reference to something warmer- calibrating that Brazilian saudade but not quite getting there, and may pull a strange insipid blinding factor that just crept in and took over... and left me a bit dumbfounded, but sucked in, as in Chinese it references the road, and a sort of burning.. or capacity to burn...


Am I missing anything? Feel free to share your thoughts and references certainly welcome...


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