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Baloney & Pe£lnuls

Politics Among GradR Schoolers
C.W.SullivanIII . EastCarolinaUniversity

Recently, a derisive political rhyme about Presi-
dent Carter has been sweeping the grade schools in
the Greenville, North Carolina, area. So far as I know,
this rhyme did not come to the children from an adult
source; few of my colleagues or my folklore students
knew of its existence before I brought it to their
attention. Moreover, the rhyme is circulating among
the children in traditional ways. The first version I
heard goes as follows:

My peanut has a first name, it's J-I-M-M-Y
My peanut has a second name, it's C-A-R-T-R
Oh, I hate to see him every day
And if you ask me why I'll say
'Cause Jimmy Carter has a way
Of messing up the U.S.A.

Sometimes a child will spell C-AR-T-E-R to get the
spelling correct, but the C-A-R-T-R spelling makes
the six letters of Jimmy Carter's last name fit into the
meter of the source of the tune, an Oscar Mayer
bologna jingle:

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My baloney has a first name, It's O-S-C-A-R
My baloney has a second name, it's M-A-Y-E-R
Oh, I love to eat it every day
An if you ask me why I'll say
'Cause Oscar Mayer has a way
With B-O-L-O-G-N-A

More than a political rhyme, this new rhyme is a
parody of a baloney commercial, and the correspon-
dence of "baloney" in the original to "peanut" in
the parody is interesting in light of the slang definitions
of baloney: "Foolishness" or "nonsense." This and
the slang definitions of peanuts, "a small or trifling
amount, usually in regard to money," are intriguing
comments about Mr. Carter in these inflationary
times.

The rhyme tells us that the peanut's name is
Jimmy Carter; therefore, this Jimmy Carter is a peanut
-a small or trifling amount (of money), Behind his
peanut-ness is baloney-foolishness or nonsense.
All of which the rhymer tells us that he "hates"
to see because it's "messing up the U.S,A."

Are the third, fourth, and fifth graders who sang
this jingle-parody to me such astute political com-
mentators? I do not know, When asked how Jimmy
Carter was "messing up the U.S,A.," they had no
comment.

4