If you're wondering where 'jakeleg' got his name....
Friday, November 2nd, 2007 - 12:07am
A couple of days ago on Metafilter, they posted a writeup on the Jake Leg, including several links to blues songs about the epidemic.
It seems that a bunch of people, particularly middle aged alcoholics, were coming down with 'floppy feet', often progressing to total paralysis of the legs. Those who could still walk had a very distinctive gait, eventually called 'the jake leg'. Figuring out the cause of the epidemic was quite involved, and the blues helped pin it down.
There's a pretty complete writeup in this large PDF. I found it very interesting. It's a scan of an old magazine article, so with the little bit showing from the facing page, it looks like you should be going left and right. Don't... it's a normal, top-to-bottom file. Ignore the right margin.
No wonder i kept wanting to heal him...
Steam Community ID: LastExile[gwj]
Are you saying Jakeleg is an alcoholic?
He's saying jakeleg walks funny.
McChuck wrote:
The soldier does have a strange gait and he does almost always play Heavy or Soldier, the two slowest-moving characters.
I'd prefer not to think I'm getting my ass handed to me repeatedly by a drunk guy.
Nice find though Malor, the scanned article was a good read. Thanks.
MrDeVil909: I feel it necessary to point out that there are drug resistant strains of most STDs. Especially in developing nations.
Funkenpants: Great. Yet another area in which we're losing our lead to foreigners.
No more Gears and Beers for you!
Neat article, though. Thanks, Mal!
Elysium: The democratization of the web ... has installed an illusion of a digital first amendment that protects speech no matter how poorly spelled or stupid.
XBL: E Munnie
elementsofmeaning.blogspot.com
Great link Malor. I do walk funny sometimes even though I'm not much of a drinker.
I must have been listening to the Ishmon Bracey or Tommy Johnson when I created my screen name.
I have had a love of 1920s and 30s blues music having lived in the South all my life. I even when to grad school in Memphis and got all the way to my dissertation in ethnomusicology/American music studies before I got lured into working in the technology world.
You're right Scaph, the soldier does have a weird gait.
XBL: jakelegg | PSN: jakeleg-GWJ
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Crap, nevermind.