keeps getting worse with the passage of time

December 31, 2018 7:04 AM

"In 1998, Congress extended the terms of copyright for works published before 1978 from 75 years to 95 years. In practical terms, this meant that works of art first published in the United States in 1923—which would otherwise have entered the public domain in 1999—got an extra 20 years of copyright protection. On Tuesday, those twenty years will finally be over, and a large number of movies, books, songs, paintings, and at least one work of choreography (Ellen Tels’ Persisches Ballett) will be entering the public domain for the first time." According to Critics From 1923, Here’s the Worst of It.
posted by everybody had matching towels (8 comments total)

Previously, previously.

The Talking Parrot played on Broadway for only 8 performances. Inquiring minds want to know.
posted by Melismata at 7:30 AM on December 31, 2018

In good news for my dad, Yes! We Have No Bananas is about to enter the public domain.
In bad news for everyone around my dad, Yes! We Have No Bananas is about to enter the public domain.
posted by ckape at 7:40 AM on December 31, 2018 [24 favorites]

No, seriously, this is great! When I lived on Long Island, I'd try to explain the importance of the Long Island potato industry to people unfamiliar with it (or to the equally historically interesting Long Island duck farming industry). To nail my case, I would sing the part of "Yes we have no bananas" that mentions "old fashioned to-mah-toes, Long Island po-tah-toes" and stand back triumphantly. And then face a blank stare because the person didn't know the song, not being related to my mother, who sang it throughout my childhood. So, now that it's copyright-free, let's everyone start singing it, and the Long Island potato will flourish for another hundred years!

I'm startled, seeing the lyrics, that they read "And all sorts of fruit and say" where my mother would sing "and a melon that's turning gray". (melons- another important crop of Long Island!). If only the song had mentioned pumpkins and cauliflowers, I would have been able to explain the whole of Long Island Agriculture,

Besides the potatoes, the lyrics turn on another feature of Long Island life: The Greek food industry. The lyrics go on:
"Business got so good for him that he wrote home today,
'Send me Pete and Nick and Jim; I need help right away.'
When he got them in the store, there was fun, you bet.
Someone asked for "sparrow grass" and then the whole quartet
All answered..." etc.

Long Island's markets and diners used to be run by Greek families who would sponsor relatives to come and get a start in this country as an employee. And sell Long Island potatoes in the markets and Long Island duck at the diners. Anyway, it's not the worst song ever.
posted by acrasis at 8:29 AM on December 31, 2018 [20 favorites]

Unquestionably the world’s worst book. Hero as pompous as the father in “Swiss Family Robinson,” and heroine as forceful and modern as what’s-her-name in “The Wide, Wide World” go honeymooning down a river in Burmah on a raft. Marriage nearly ended by maiden’s Victorian prudery. … when the shipwrecked pair are rescued, the prudish one’s hair is down, her legs are bare, and this primitive experience, we are given to understand, has fully opened her eyes to the glories of the married state. … By the way, her name is Lesbia and his is Gallio.

Still a better love story than Twilight.
posted by Naberius at 8:52 AM on December 31, 2018 [6 favorites]

And 2020 is the year for "Does Your Spearmint Lose Its Flavor (On the Bedpost Overnight)" but I wonder if the revision by Lonnie Donegan to "Does Your CHEWING GUM..." in 1960 mean a further extension? (This was one of the first 45s my parents allowed me to acquire... and in my search for it online I discovered an extended live version that is much more fun!)
posted by oneswellfoop at 11:22 AM on December 31, 2018 [1 favorite]

I wonder if Fortnite, eager to continue adding new dances but wary of attracting any more lawsuits, will add some bits of Persisches Ballet to the game.
posted by tobascodagama at 11:51 AM on December 31, 2018 [3 favorites]

How does one look at Slate articles without consenting to the GDPR waiver? There seems to be no link to withhold consent for behavioural advertising tracking short of emailing their privacy department.
posted by acb at 7:02 PM on December 31, 2018

acb: Opening the link in a private window worked for me.
posted by bryon at 9:34 PM on December 31, 2018