Negroni – Second Valley style

Well this week we won’t be sharing a coffee rather it will be a Negroni! After all,it is Negroni week .

Negronis have become our drink of choice. A wonderful aperitif that doesn’t seem to be climate dependent. Whether at home, at the beach (Second Valley) in a local bar or somewhere on our travels they have been a highlight. In Australia they are carefully measured, unless you having one of my homemade versions, whereas in many of the bars we sampled them in Italy it was a “glug” of Gin, Campari and Vermouth making them all the more special.

After a Negroni or two the conversation often becomes obtuse. For example – unusual words in songs.

“moot” in Rick Springfield’s Jessy’s Girl – surely a little sophisticated for a song like this?

“gavotte” in Carly Simon’s Your so Vain – Carly Simon in Variety discusses why she used the word which means a French dance. It rhymed she says and it made sense as she described this pretentious man!

“polythene” in The Beatles Polythene Pam from Abbey Road. Abbey Road holds a special place in my heart as my first album and as for Polythene doesn’t it just typify the era the song was written in?

However, the winner, as far as I am concerned, comes from our own Australian National Anthem with “girt”. Yes “girt” not surrounded but “girt”. What a truly amazing word and here it is in our very own national anthem.

As I surfed the internet I found others had pondered the same with references to “colitas” in The Eagles Hotel California or “obsequious” used not just by my Year 12 English Master but by They Might be Great,and what about “infrastructure” used by Public Enemy or “Frigidaire” by Son Seals.

Apparently the song with “Frigidaire” in it was banned by the BBC because it referred to a commercial product.  No fear of that with “girt”!

So as I walk to the bar to get another round or should that be stagger, I’ll leave you to ponder unusual song words.

A rainy Second Valley morning