# Funny, you don't look Quakerish. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 5, 2009, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-you-dont-look-quakerish/512631 "2009-10-05T03:08:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-you-dont-look-quakerish/512631/21 "2009-10-05T14:49:38Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > For that matter, wouldn’t playing a musical instrument be frowned upon in Quaker-land? > > Unless, of course, it is used to glorify the Lord. Are you confusing the Quakers and the Shakers? (or the Amish or … who knows what oddball Protestant sect you’re thinking of.) I am unaware of any strictures against music amongst the Society of Friends. ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-you-dont-look-quakerish/512631/22 "2009-10-05T14:50:05Z")
Steve Martin plays the banjo. What does that make him? StG ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-you-dont-look-quakerish/512631/23 "2009-10-05T15:01:21Z")
> [@StGermain](#): > > Steve Martin plays the banjo. What does that make him? A strummer and a picker. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-you-dont-look-quakerish/512631/24 "2009-10-05T15:09:07Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > Are you confusing the Quakers and the Shakers? (or the Amish or … who knows what oddball Protestant sect you’re thinking of.) > > I am unaware of any strictures against music amongst the Society of Friends. I have Quaker ministers in the family some generations ago (ca. early/mid 1800’s). More recently, the family had morphed into general fundamentalists, and their particular brand of fund prohibits music outside of hymns, folk or classical music (blues & jazz are the Devil’s work, along with all dancing). I just assumed their predecessors were more strict; perhaps the opposite is true. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-you-dont-look-quakerish/512631/25 "2009-10-05T16:45:08Z")
> [@choie](#): > > On topic: as a kid I always thought that Alan Alda was Jewish. I know, I know, the name is pretty obvious (especially his real name) but Hawkeye was always spouting Yiddish words and Alda just seemed so comfortable with them. > > (Same thing with Carol Burnett. As a child I must have had the rather bizarre impression that all comedians were Jewish.) Twas a time when it seemed that way, thanks to the Borscht Belt. And thanks to those guys goyim like Alda and me picked up enough Yiddish to make it something like Spanish is today, America’s second language that nearly everybody knows some of. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-you-dont-look-quakerish/512631/26 "2009-10-05T16:52:37Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > I have Quaker ministers in the family some generations ago (ca. early/mid 1800’s). More recently, the family had morphed into general fundamentalists, and their particular brand of fund prohibits music outside of hymns, folk or classical music (blues & jazz are the Devil’s work, along with all dancing). I just assumed their predecessors were more strict; perhaps the opposite is true. Different branches. I’m a Philly Quaker – silent meeting, super liberal, no clergy. (No music in services, but no objection to it otherwise. 😉 ) ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-you-dont-look-quakerish/512631/27 "2009-10-05T17:25:14Z")
BTW, the Shakers are/were _very_ musical. Very into writing & performing hymns, marches and dance music (I mean that’s why they’re called Shakers, yo). Nothing else to add, just thought I’d throw that in. : ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-you-dont-look-quakerish/512631/28 "2009-10-05T17:36:44Z")
We seem to be getting somewhat off-topic here. And, yeah, I know I started it, but we should end this hijack. What was the topic again? What ethnic groups are known for their banjo-playing proclivities? ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-you-dont-look-quakerish/512631/29 "2009-10-05T17:44:04Z")
> [@StGermain](#): > > Steve Martin plays the banjo. What does that make him? “You mean I’m going to stay this color?” ---
**Author:** ![singular1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@singular1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/singular1)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-you-dont-look-quakerish/512631/30 "2009-10-05T18:14:23Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Okay, Zachary Levi, TV’s “Chuck,” with a name like that, he HAS to be Jewish, right? Au contraire, mon frere. He pronounces it “LEE-veye,” like the jeans; \ Every interview I’ve heard him give he is introduced with the pronunciation you give, and he’s never corrected anyone. How _else_ would you pronounce it?😕 ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-you-dont-look-quakerish/512631/31 "2009-10-05T19:09:26Z")
Actually that’s a good question. We Jewish types pronounce it LEE-veye, and I’m pretty sure so do the old school Christians or Mormons who’d be likely to use the name. Does someone out there pronounce it “levvy”? ETA: Wait, maybe **dropzone** is thinking of the name _Levin_, which is either pronounced le-VIHN or LEH-vin depending if you’re [del]pretentious[/del] more of a Francophile; or possibly Levine, which can be le-VYNE or le-VEEN or even LEH-vin? ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-you-dont-look-quakerish/512631/32 "2009-10-05T19:15:23Z")
I was surprised to learn that Richard Nixon was a Quaker. I was always under the impression that Billy Joel was an Catholic Italian-American (probably due to songs like “Only the Good Die Young” and “Scenes From an Italian Restaurant”). Several years ago, I saw his picture on the cover of a cookbook dedicated to recipes from Jewish-Americans. Imagine my surprise. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-you-dont-look-quakerish/512631/33 "2009-10-05T19:15:38Z")
LEH-vee ---
**Author:** ![Belrix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed655f/32.png) [@Belrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belrix)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-you-dont-look-quakerish/512631/34 "2009-10-05T19:21:59Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > I am a Quaker. I was raised Quaker. I know many, many Quakers. > > Not a single one of them plays the banjo. I go to a Friends church - we have a banjo-playing member. EDIT: We also have music in service, a leading pastor & all the standard service things as most protestant churches. We don’t do immersion or sprinkled baptisms (you’re baptized by the hold spirit, not by water) and that’s about all I’ve seen that’s kinda weird. In general, I think of it as middle-of-the-road protestant. ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-you-dont-look-quakerish/512631/35 "2009-10-05T19:24:58Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > I was surprised to learn that Richard Nixon was a Quaker. > > I was always under the impression that Billy Joel was an Catholic Italian-American (probably due to songs like “Only the Good Die Young” and “Scenes From an Italian Restaurant”). Several years ago, I saw his picture on the cover of a cookbook dedicated to recipes from Jewish-Americans. Imagine my surprise. 🙂 Good one! I can undertand “Scenes” making you think Italian/Catholic, and maybe “Moving Out” since the lead dude is named Tony. OTOH, isn’t the point of “Only the Good Die Young” that our hero is looking from the outside of the whole Catholic thing (“_You_ Catholic girls start much too late…”) and sort of teasing or mocking it? Before I knew his name, I thought Tony Shaloub was Italian (c.f. _Wings_ and _Big Night_). ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-you-dont-look-quakerish/512631/36 "2009-10-05T19:25:40Z")
Well, sure, if you go to a “church” rather than a meeting. 😛 ETA: that was directed at **Belrix** ; **choie** snuck in while I was posting. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-you-dont-look-quakerish/512631/37 "2009-10-05T19:29:11Z")
> [@choie](#): > > Before I knew his name, I thought Tony Shaloub was Italian (c.f. _Wings_ and _Big Night_). I’d always assumed (correctly, as it turns out) that he was of some sort of Middle Eastern descent. What _did_ surprise me was to learn that he was born and raised in my home town of Green Bay. He hides that northern Wisconsin accent quite well. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-you-dont-look-quakerish/512631/38 "2009-10-05T19:30:21Z")
> [@singular1](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > Okay, Zachary Levi, TV’s “Chuck,” with a name like that, he HAS to be Jewish, right? Au contraire, mon frere. He pronounces it “LEE-veye,” like the jeans; > > Every interview I’ve heard him give he is introduced with the pronunciation you give, and he’s never corrected anyone. How _else_ would you pronounce it?😕 Heck, wasn’t the LEE-veye of “jeans” fame Jewish? ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-you-dont-look-quakerish/512631/39 "2009-10-05T19:35:09Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Heck, wasn’t the LEE-veye of “jeans” fame Jewish? So Wikipedia says, though it also says that Levi wasn’t his birth name: > **[Levi Strauss](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levi_Strauss)** > > Levi Strauss (/ˈliːvaɪ ˈstraʊs/ LEE-vy STROWSS; born Löb Strauß, .mw-parser-output .IPA-label-small{font-size:85%}.mw-parser-output .references .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .infobox .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .navbox .IPA-label-small{font-size:100%}German: \[løːp ˈʃtʁaʊs\]; February 26, 1829 – September 26, 1902) was a German-born American businessman who founded the first company to manufacture blue jeans. His firm of Levi Strauss & Co. (Levi's) began in 1853 in San Francisco, Cali... ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-you-dont-look-quakerish/512631/40 "2009-10-05T19:42:34Z")
> [@St.Anger](#): > > Maybe a little OT, but I was shocked when I learned Mel Gibson was born in New York, and Bob Hope in London, UK. Yeah, but in both instances they spent a lot of time in their adopted homelands. Probably more true of Bob Hope than Mel, who if I’m not mistaken moved to Australia as a teenager. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-you-dont-look-quakerish/512631.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-you-dont-look-quakerish/512631.md?page=3)