ANYONE CAN WHISTLE, but...:

I think I've been misunderstood slightly on "Whistling Dixie." Why

don't we have "Whistling Suwanee?" For example, say Whistling Dick had been

called Whistling Swan. THEN, a song called "Suwanee" comes along. I'm

certain you'd have "Whistling Suwanee."

Whistling Dick, who whistled "Mockingbird," himself was named after the

Whistling Dick bird of Van Dieman's Land (Tanzania). I also left out a minor

article, "On the Rhetoric of Popular Song: 'Y'ain't Juzz Whizzlin' 'Dixie''"

by Carl B. Holmberg, Popular Music and Society, vol. 9, no. 4, 1984, pp.

27-33.

The proper name "Dixie" and its origins I said I would leave to another

day. I also have quite important stuff on the naming of the "New York

Yankees," which I was told will be in a revised "Yankees" entry in the next

edition of the Encyclopedia of New York City.

"Dixie" and "Yankee" are astonishing stuff--rather long, though.