On Mon, 25 Feb 2013 20:57:33 -0800, Evan Kirshenbaum
<
evan.kir...@gmail.com> wrote:
>Mike L <
n...@yahoo.co.uk> writes:
>
>> On Sun, 24 Feb 2013 23:21:24 -0500, Joy Beeson
>> <jbe...@invalid.net.invalid> wrote:
>>
>>>On Sat, 23 Feb 2013 10:06:56 +0800, Robert Bannister
>>><
rob...@clubtelco.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> You are correct in assuming that "a couple of"
>>>> could mean anything from 2 to 5.
>>>
>>>I express that as "more than one, probably less than three".
>>>
>>>Five is stretching it.
>>
>> I've heard "a couple or three", which sounds sensible. You can get
>> tied up following leads like this. Confusingly, foxhounds come in
>> couples, while two trout, pheasant, etc constitute a brace. Three make
>> a leash.
>
>How about "a couple or two or three" from the Clancy Brothers' "Johnny
>McEldoo":
>
> There was Johnny McEldoo and McGee and me
> and a couple or two or three went on a spree one day.
>
>Common Irish?
Not to your question, but on my 33 1/3 album, Tommy Makem sings one
verse of "The Spree" as:
Johnny McEldoo turned as blue as a Jew
As a plate of Irish stew he soon put out of sight
Where the lyrics on most websites make those lines:
Johnny McEldoo turned red, white and blue
As a plate of Irish stew he soon put out of sight
If you read all of the lyrics, the "red, white and blue" phrasing
doesn't fit with the way the rest of the song lyrics go with words in
each line rhyming with other words in the same line and usually with a
third word somewhere in the next line.
Mudcat Cafe, the better source for all folk music lyrics, gives the
lines as:
Johnny McEldoo turned as blue as the dew
As a plate of Irish stew he soon put out of sight
That line, at least, follows the pattern of the rest of song with
rhyme within line:
http://mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=6998
Ah, here's verification of the "blue as a Jew":
http://www.songlyrics.com/clancy-brothers/johnny-mac-adoo-lyrics/
While Tommy Makem was with the Clancy Brothers for many of their
albums, he was not a Clancy. I saw him in person a few times in his
bar in NYC, and this was a trademark song for him, but I don't
remember if he sang it or not when I was in the audience. Probably,
though.