Re: The good Lord and the crick (was Hub radio legend will say aloha this fall)

[dan.strassberg@att.net]

My guess is that radio personalities (and not just on 
country-formatted stations) have been ending their shows 
with that cliche since long before Charles Lacquidera 
entered radio--more'n likely since Hank Williams (Sr) 
was knee-high to a grasshopper <g>. The standard 
locution is something like "Time t' say s' long. But 
we'll be seein' ya agin' t'marrah--if the good Lord's 
willin' an' th' cr[ic]k don't rise." In fact, I think 
Arthur Godfrey used the "good Lord willin'" part for 
decades as part of his closer, and eventually recorded a 
song based on it. He might even have written the song or 
helped to write it. Needless to say (given Godfrey's 
golden touch), the song was at least a moderate hit. 

> (Note: that last bit was something Hank Williams used
> to say. The blues-rock band Canned Heat did a live
> concert on WBCN once and they said that at the end,
> and somehow 'Chuck' picked up on it.)