The pompitous of love
D | Thursday, June 23, 2005

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A few days ago, I was speaking to a customer and her last name was Tokar. That of course made me think of the line from Steve Miller Band's The Joker:

I'm a joker
I'm a smoker
I'm a midnight toker
I sure don't want to hurt no one

When a colleague came on the line, I told him I had Ms. Tokar with me and began to sing the chorus. He was clueless. "The Joker," I proclaimed. "Steve Miller Band, 1970 something. You know. The Joker, man." Not a clue.

Anyways, I was getting some dinner tonight and lo-and-behold, again, I am confronted with Steve Miller Band's The Joker (this time on the radio). Thinking perhaps a higher power is sending me a coded message, I listen to the words. Other than the "midnight toker" part, it might be about me. For example, I don't think it would be out of line for someone to look at some of the things I do and call me a "space cowboy." Furthermore, I am definitely a "gangster of love" and almost every woman I've ever been with would agree that "some people say I'm doing you wrong" (like all your friends). On top of which, I've been known to say "you're the cutest thing that I ever did see" and "I really love your peaches, wanna shake your tree" (also "sometimes love don't feel like it should, but baby, it hurts so good" but that's another story for another day...). Take all those things together and you might have a song about me.

But what really started this post was line #4, "Cause I speak of the pompitous of love." I found myself sing the words right out loud, with absolutely no clue what I was saying. Pompitous? I wasn't sure if I was hearing it right, so I figured I would look up the lyrics when I got home. Upon doing so, I found "pompitous" in numerous lyric sheets. Ok, so I'm not very well-read and I don't know what pompitous means. Dictionary dot com defines "pompitous" as ... nothing. What? Did I mean pompous? No. Pompitous.

And now we get to the part that makes derekwalden.com special - the research. A cursory search of the web produces a few web pages with an explanation - summarized to be sure, I submit the following explanation of "pompitous."

Steve Miller borrowed the lyric from an old R&B song called The Letter sung by a group called The Medallions, written by band front-man Vernon Green. An actor by the name of Jon Cryer was giving a TV interview and mentioned the link along with Green's name. Upon seeing the interview, Green, who had never even heard Miller's The Joker, telephoned Cryer to give an explanation. Apparently "pompitous" should really be "puppetutes," a term Green, who was 14, alone, and living on the streets at the time he penned the lyric, invented to describe the imaginary secret paper-doll fantasy woman of his dreams [thus puppet]. Green's The Letter was a song about his perfect woman, his "puppetutes of love." In the end, Miller used a word he himself had misunderstood. (research 1, research 2)

And there you have it. Although I remain un-school, under-read, and un-impressive in most everything I do, I won't be shaken from my course this time. Not by made-up words. Neglify that Steve Miller!

D | 6/23/2005 02:37:00 AM | Post your comment

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Comments:

You make research funducational! Now what I want to know is what a "midnight toker" is; am I the only person who never undersood that line?
 Ruvym | June 23, 2005 7:58 AM | permalink
 

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I used to be confused too Ruvym, but to "toke" is to smoke marijuana, pot, weed, grass, a doobie, ganga, hashish, etc. Thus, a midnight toker is one who would use said substance to "get high" or to come under the effects of this mild hallucinogen. For more information check out this website.

I am once agained impressed with your research Derek, both informational and completely irrelevant - the only research I truly can appreciate. Well Played Mr. Walden
 Chris Welter | June 23, 2005 8:23 AM | permalink
 

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I think this would be a sight - the three of us, sitting around doing a little "midnight toking" of our own, drinking some beers, watching Cheech and Chong movies, and eating Doritos by the bag.

A more unlikely scenario is hard to imagine.
 D | June 23, 2005 1:48 PM | permalink
 

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I'm down.
 Ruvym | June 23, 2005 4:31 PM | permalink
 

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i cant believe you made a site about this. you must have a lot of free time.
 Anonymous | July 31, 2006 5:47 AM | permalink
 

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It's a made up conjugation of the word Pomp... Look it up.
 Anonymous | November 27, 2006 10:22 AM | permalink
 

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Yo!
This site is great. I'm very happy I got here.
Cheers! ;)
 SushiGirl, Poland | March 21, 2007 10:27 PM | permalink
 

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English is not my first language and there are words I have no clue what they mean, so I decided to investigate what POMPITOUS and TOKER meant. I had no luck in finding the meaning so I did a web search and found this site.
Thanks!
 Anonymous | October 12, 2008 6:16 AM | permalink
 

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a midnight toker is someone who smokes cigarettes only in the nighttime
 Anonymous | December 02, 2008 11:47 AM | permalink
 

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