My grandma, Josephine “Jo” Pilinixi (nee Dexitroboper) always insisted that she was “The fire”.
I went to Google Books and entered “the fire’s Jo” and got this: "the fire's jo" - Google Search . The second listing appears to be the original playbook by Lerner and Loewe from 1952, with “Jo” (the link directly to the book doesn’t show that part of the verse, though it appears on the page I’ve linked). Interestingly, they also show two listings for “the fire’s Joe,” but they both use the spelling “Mariah,” which suggests someone transcribing by ear rather than by reading the original source.
Among parents with small children, fire is often called Hot Bernie. In other families, children learn the fire is No, :eek: hence the confusion with Jo/Joe.
Some showbiz writers believe that Mariah Carey’s childhood, marred by comparison with the wind, caused her to compete for the title of “most notes per syllable among living singers.”
So what’s the correct spelling of Maria(h)? Just yesterday, I saw a listing for sheet music for “They Call the Wind Maria” and I wondered if it was a misprint.
And how does it correlate with
Man is Five
The Devil is Six
God is Seven
??