Allan BloomBack in 1989, when Allan Bloom’s indictment of what has come to be called “Woke” was current (“The Closing of the American Mind”), Bloom and a professor named Gerald Graff appeared on an afternoon talk show. Maybe it was Sally Jesse Raphael’s. It was meant to be a debate. Bloom was adamant on the distinction between high and low culture; he was an absolutist.  Graff, whose contribution to the pedagogy of the time was the feckless advice to “teach the conflicts,” must have thought that  Bloom had a soft spot for the popular culture of the 1940s. Graff cited “Mairzy Doates,” a big hit in that decade, as an example of the ridiculous. “You make my point,” Bloom said. He won the exchange. What neither of them acknowledged was that “Mairzy Doates,” the lyrics of which follow, hammers home a truth about the ultimate arbitrariness of language. If you, dear reader, are a cunning linguist, perhaps you can analyze “Mairzy Does” and explain its significance.
 
I know a ditty nutty as a fruitcake
Goofy as a goon and silly as a loon
Some call it pretty, others call it crazy
But they all sing this tune:
 
Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey
A kiddley divey too, wouldn’t you?
Yes! Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey
A kiddley divey too, wouldn’t you?
 
If the words sound queer and funny to your ear, a little bit jumbled and jivey
Sing “Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy”
 
Oh! Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey
A kiddley divey too, wouldn’t you-oo?
A kiddley divey too, wouldn’t you?

       

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