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THE MO’ THE MERRIER
Not to be picky, but the “Mo” story is even better than you suggest over at NRO ("Four Guys Named Mo"). There was a fifth Mo in the gang (another Mohammed Miah, with the middle name Junjun) who was sentenced to three months for stealing a cheque from a local bank. And, to cap it all off, the victims of the beating were also both named Mohammed (they are brothers).
David Alexander
Pocatello, Idaho
…AND HEAD STRAIGHT TO SENSITIVITY TRAINING
The name Mohammed is actually useful for a good hijack test. It works very much like in An American Carol. Whenever I get on a plane these days, I hold up my cell phone and say, “Call for Mohammed!” If more than four guys stand up, I get off the plane.
Barry Jones
MO’ MOS, MO’ PROBLEMS
Having lived in the Middle East for some time (Saudi, Kuwait, Oman, and UAE), I had to laugh at your NRO post about “Four Guys Named Mo”.
We expats actually called the local population “Mos” on account that they were all named Mohammed. The term was even used as a taunt, as in, “How Mo-ish,” or “What a Mo.”
Mo’ power to ya, Mark.
Cristin
Tampa, Florida
FROM THE FOLLOW-UP LP MO-MENTS GONE BY
I think I recall the Four Mohammeds, the musical quartet to which you referred. I particularly loved "Killy-Killy-Bomb-and-Blast-Them-Drive-the-Bogus-Jews-into-the-Sea," and the one that went:
Standing on the corner
Watching all the kafirs go by...
Scott
MARK SAYS: Hey, let's not forget "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)". Why did Constantinople get the works? That's nobody's business but the Turks. Many a true word sung in four-part harmony.
BATTER UP
The "Mo" violence you wrote about yesterday involved “baseball bats, metal bars and cricket bats.”
It seems that a lot of battery and mayhem in the UK is committed by assailants wielding baseball bats. This is puzzling to me. Baseball is not played in England... Are baseball bats marketed by sporting goods stores with the idea that people will use them to be others to a pulp?
Daniel Heneghan
MARK SAYS: Well, years ago, after a cricket match, I was attacked with a cricket bat. And certainly many a Continental police force has come off the worse for encountering a mob of English soccer fans after a footie match. So in a way it makes a kind of sense to dispense with the sporting preamble entirely and just cut to the brute violence: Take me out, but skip the ball game.
WHY NOT “WHERE OR WHEN”?
That was a very interesting (and plenary) exposition you wrote about Rodgers and Hart's “Blue Moon.” Being a child of the 50's (or at least a teenager thereof), I was more familiar with the “profane” Marcels version than with its more pristine roots.
I wonder if you'd mind giving a similar treatment to another of Rodgers and Hart's exquisite creations, “Where Or When”? That song has not only a marvelous melody, but it is very economical and succinct, lyrically-speaking. While some might easily dissent, it is widely opined that the updated treatment of this classic— by Dion & The Belmonts in late 1959— was both respectful and masterfully rendered (I tend to agree). Those guys wringed every ounce of meaning from the words while effectively conveying both the inherent emotion and irony— I’d be curious as to your take on the matter.
Alan Polasky
Tampa, Florida
MARK SAYS: Actually, my favorite version of "Where Or When" is by the Four Mohammeds.
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