Re: "Love Affair" Update - additional comment

[Jurriaan Bendien <bendien@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> why send the lyrics to the list?  It does not add much.

Sorry. A bit of dark sarcasm. I'll try to be more constructive and observe
good style. Okay then. From a linguistic point of view, in American idiom,
the expression ""America's love affair with...", "America's love of/with..."
etc. is in truth applied to a variety of American fascinations, real or
imputed, sometimes sincerely and sometimes cynically or sarcastically
(including the rebel, baseball, Israel, fresh herbs, SUVs, the community,
littering etc.).

In literature, for example, we have Norman Mailer writing in "Marylin"",
chapter 1, that "So we think of Marilyn who was every man's love affair with
America. Marilyn Monroe who was blonde and beautiful and had a sweet little
rinky-dink of a voice and all the cleanliness of all the clean American
backyards."  But the expression surfaces also in Britain, Ireland and
Australia these days, i.e. it has become a generalised Anglo-Saxon
expression gladly adopted by the car industry. Examples:

"As was said by the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, however, one cannot deny that
the motor car has fundamentally changed our way of life. It is a vitally
important part of the way in which society functions. I agree with the noble
Lord's point about social attitudes towards cars. The motor industry is
probably the most ultimate symbol of the love affair with the car. The car
has become one's personal space and it allows personal freedom--or at least
it appears to. The motor industry presents us with an object which travels
at tremendous speed requiring the driver's tremendous skill and in strident
competition. It is something to which people can relate."

- Lord Addington, speech to the British Parliament, 24 Jan 1996

To say that the United Kingdom has had a love affair with the car is not to
overstate the matter. This is particularly so in Northern Ireland, where
motor sport and cars have been a big part of social life. Because of our
interest and for reasons of the economy, geography and social background, th
e car has been to the fore in planning. I am not saying that that is a bad
thing, but it is part of a situation that has evolved: cars have become very
necessary. Someone said that we have come to a defining moment. It is a
defining moment for the individual, for public transport and for the rural
aspect. It is a defining moment for planning issues, for the Government and
for the car industry. These are all areas of great concern, as is the
environment, including the quality of the air.

- Mr McAlister, Northern Ireland Forum for Political Dialogue, 14 November
1997

The year 1903 marks the beginning of Australia's love affair with the car,
now a century-long romance that has fostered some remarkable engineers,
entrepreneurs and trading partners, not to mention rally and racing drivers.

http://www.focus.com.au/motoring/

When I was a student in Thatcherite times, I saw a political movie once
called "The Plowman's Lunch" about Thatcherism, I think starring Jeremy
Irons, a sort of British version of Sam Neill. The Plowman's Lunch was the
name given to a dish marketed as an English traditional dish, even although
in reality the label was just invented one day by an entrepreneur as a
commercial venture. It is thus quite possible that similarly the concept of
"America's love affair with the car" is a latter-day ascription; while it
might recall James Dean and Jack Kerouac, in fact I personally cannot trace
a use of this exact expression in the 1950s, and thus I venture to suggest,
this idiom came into wider use only in the 1970s. The Dutch tend to talk
more about "our holy cows" in reference to personal cars.

Hope this helps :-) .... - ....

Jurriaan