Reader Bill Smith recently commented:

Please - Change it to "tug on Superman's cape."

This glaring inaccuracy is like screeching your fork across the plate. I like your blog but turn it off almost instantly when I see the pull on the cape crap. It is ok that you add the line about messing with Dan.

I had heard something like this from someone on another blog somewhere else.

So I answered Bill, pretty much like I had answered before:

Bill - It has been my contention that 'Pull' and 'Tug' were in synonymous usage predating the instant of Croce's song. I intentionally used 'Pull' because of the double entendre it suggests that 'Tug' never could. I suppose that it dates me a bit given that I'm maybe the only one around here that actually remembers the lyricial controversies around the release of Jim's song. In another blog, in another life I posted this excerpted comment:

"As to tug/pull,(perhaps pee/spit, and Jim/Slim/Dan) - I'm glad someone finally noticed! ...

Notice that my blog title includes "... or something like that."

And what self-respecting ... knuckle dragging Republican operative is going to have 'tug' as part of his blog's name?

Those lexical idioms were of course part of the vox-populi of the early seventies. It so happens that "pull on superman's cape" was reasonably synonymous with "tug on superman's cape" at the time (and the use of "pull" in this particular colloquialism has a bit of unix lore attached to it if you want to look into it). Perhaps I'm the only one that is old enough here to remember the "pee" versus "spit" controversy? As I recall (admittedly a little brain addled), Jim originally recorded "...you don't pee into the wind" which is, of course, much more satisfying lyrically simply because of the visual imagery (admittedly in a male inflected sense) - but it was too racy for radio at the time (that didn't keep us from sophomorically singing "pee" at the top of our lungs when the chorus played).

Fundamentally, my intention was to be a bit more nuanced than perhaps is reasonably accessible. Croce's lyrics are imbued with the idea that the patently invincible really just ain't so. How else could Slim take Jim? I chose the name of my blog as prophecy - what may be considered now as quixotic endeavor may one day prove to be really taking on the mantle of "truth, justice, and the American way" after all. "Tug",for me, just wouldn't do."

So we'll keep Pulling around here - with the hope that the mantle is a finally attainable goal. Of course, none of this is really important - not in the context of an attack on our democracy. Don't you think?

To which new friend Bill replied:

Thanks for the clarification. I apologize for the request. I have become used to dealing with the Neanderthals that pass for educated individuals in this mostly young genre.

My comments date me also and Jim Croce remains near and dear to my heart. He was probably the first (and almost only) Rock Star/ Singer/ Poet I really regretted losing to the vagaries of nature. Buddy Holly, John Lennon, Patsy Cline, The King, et al were all pretty decent entertainers, but Croce remains the only one I can listen to on any given day whilst I ponder the inconsistent logic with which my God pulls the plug.

"Nobody ever had a rainbow baby, until he had the rain."

Which all just proves that if we have some dialog about something we can all understand each other a little better. Well, at least in the context of usage variants of colloquialisms in song lyrics.

But to what purpose do I share this blog name tale?

Well, another faithful reader sent me this photo writing: "No one would call this 'tug' would they?"

No, I don't think so.