From the NYT home page, linking to this article (about influencers' high jinks at the Open).
I don't know about you, but I take line breaks seriously. I saw and thought about "Open Fly" far too long before the headline congealed into the imprecation to "let your freak flag fly." Is that expression still alive after all these decades? I associate it with Jimi Hendrix. And, yes, I see the original appearance of the expression came in Jimi's 1967 song “If 6 Was 9”:
They’re hoping soon my kind will drop and die
But I’m gonna wave my freak flag high
Then there was David Crosby, in 1970's "Almost Cut My Hair":
But I didn't and I wonder why
I feel like letting my freak flag fly
And I feel like I owe it to someone
But it's more than half a century later! Are we still saying that — I mean, other than jocosely and to refer to the trappings of hippiedom?
And I'm seeing it in the NYT now and then. For example, from 2022, there's "This Is What Happens When Election Deniers Let Their Freak Flag Fly." "Let your freak flag fly" seems to have come to mean "Be yourself" or "You do you," except that it includes the notion that what you are is weird. And not in a good way. For Crosby and Hendrix, it was good. Very good.
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37 comments:
"Let the U.S. Open Fly Its Freak Flag."
I was thinking more along the lines of Robert Mapplethorpe's "Man in A Polyester Suit."
I had never heard/nor read these three f words configured this way until now. "Open fly" is an immediate look down to see if the slide fastener is the appropriate position.
And all this time I thought "let your freak flag fly" was something Owen Wilson came up with on his own.
Is "US Open Fly Fishing" a thing?
I do remember coming to the conclusion, back when I was still drinking and the use of the zipper was noticeably frequent, that it only took one forfeiture for the open fly to become a habit. I didn't have AI back then to confirm.
"freak flag fly" doesn't really roll of the tongue. Maybe that why it didn't hang around.
"In Living Color is the 1990s Fox show with the famous dance troupe called the Fly Girls".
I could see "freak flag fly" flying sideways. knowwhatimean?
Grey Goose (vodka?) hired a BUNCH of influencers to post themselves getting drunk at the US Open.. tennis fans were NOT impressed..
Of course, ANY ONE that complained was IMMEDIATELY declared a fatphobic RACISM, because..
"Ooh, Super Fly
You're gonna make your fortune by and by
But if you lose, don't ask no questions why
The only game you know is do or die
Ah-ha-ha"
ai: "The zipper itself is not actually the fly. The fly is the overlapping fabric flap covering the opening. This tailoring term predates the zipper by centuries.
The history of the term evolved through these stages:
Word origin: Derived from objects hanging by one edge.
Visual cousin: Shared meaning with a protective tent fly.
Early pants: Closed using a classic button fly.
Modern switch: Brands added zippers during the 1920s.
Language shift: The fabric's name transferred to the fastener.
Current style: Most jeans now use a zip fly.
"This Is What Happens When Election Deniers Let Their Freak Flag Fly."
I love it when math illiterates pretend Biden was legitimately elected.
They are going to regret stealing that election.
“So, let me live my life the way I want to”
They did, more or less, and look what it got ‘im”
So is it the US Open or the influencer(s) that want fly the freak flag? I find the headline confusing.
"Grey Goose (vodka?) hired a BUNCH of influencers to post themselves getting drunk at the US Open"
Take a sip... sipper... fly
ai points to the only time it came up on this blog.
Larry King, Bill Clinton, and the "zipper club."
BTW [ai makes mistakes] yady yada.
"U.S. Open Fly" is the male response to "Going Commando".
Speaking of New York:
Wow - best ad ever
I did cut my hair. Combing twigs out of it after working under the car was a hassle.
“I don't know about you, but I take line breaks seriously.”
(?) I don’t even notice them unless I’m reading poetry. They’re inserted automatically by a word processor, and don’t signify anything except that text has to fit in an allotted space.
Let the U.S Open Fly Its Freak Flag Like a Banana.
It seems to me that the only event less likely to encounter 'freaks' than the US tennis open, might be a PGA golf open. Influencers are 'freaks', but in a purely self-involved, greedy capitalist sort of way. In other words, the opposite of a counter-culture identity.
Althouse, you are wise and educational in so many ways, but frankly, while David Crosby was talented as a singer, literally every other one of the Byrds was a better song-writer.
. . . . and every other member of CSN&Y as well
. . . and most of the state of California too.
If I Could Only Remember My Name was my favorite album in 71. Wore it out and bought another one. Still have it. Haven't listened to it in 30 years. Thanks for the memories.
“Althouse, you are wise and educational in so many ways, but frankly, while David Crosby was talented as a singer, literally every other one of the Byrds was a better song-writer.”
God says (and I agree):
“David Crosby wrote and co-wrote many defining songs for The Byrds, Crosby, Stills & Nash, and his own solo career.”
I’m especially partial to “Triad”, because 1) it’s a lovely song, and 2) it pisses off the kind of people I like to see pissed off.
Ann, thanks for posting one of my favorite songs. I call "Almost Cut My Hair" one of my "end of the 60s songs". The other song is Jimi Hendrix playing "Villanova Junction" at Woodstock. The YouTube video for that song shows people trying to clean up Max Yasgur's farm after Woodstock was over.
Standard navy issue dungaree pants still had 5-6 button fly until they were replaced as issue with gabardine in 1971
Navy dress blue pants, e1-6 had 13 buttons to drop a front flap to pee. Another 2-3 buttons after that to get them off.
John Henry
yeah yeah yeah
they say that, and then one political protest, and they're arresting everybody and destroying our lives
we are not the freaks they want, and they do not want us flying our flag
they are uptight and we are out of sight
The original title was apparently The Real Problem With Influencers At the US Open.
That's a weird headline shift. How about, Celebrities Suck (Unless You Love Tennis)
The article does not actually want more freaks at the U.S. Open. She just rightly notes that there have always been freaks at the U.S. Open. Her ire is that the stands are filled with influencers who don't give a rat's ass about tennis.
Superfly is way cooler than Superfreak, in my opinion.
And CSNY is way, way cooler than the Byrds.
Our House
Suite: Judy Blue Eyes
Teach Your Children
Hippies at their best. Even when they are mad, they are awesome.
heh, I got the wrong link for Superfreak and I ain't fixing it
my subconscious says you suck, Ricky
Letting ones freak flag fly essentially means being out of the closet. The gist of the article is that you election deniers are a little bit queer and now you are out and proud and loving it.
Some of That Freak Needs To Stay In Your Pants
This was pretty much the plot to Happy Gilmore
In Caddyshack, you're allowed to fly your freak flag for 15 minutes
2016 - Hillary Clinton lied over and over and called Trump's election "ILLIGITIMATE"
F*ck her. Russian money whore.
As Prole would say: My election denying is better than your election denying.
But in the case of left - they are cheaters and liars - and we know for a fact that Biden's illegals were ushered in for the master plan to cheat the vote so the corrupt left create a one party state/ w their fascist power.
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