The Straight Dope 12/27/2002

The Straight Dope -- By Cecil Adams
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THE STRAIGHT DOPE 12/27/2002

Dear Cecil:

No quotation dictionary gives the origin of the 
common phrase "Elvis has left the building."
Who said it first? --Nicole A., Palo Alto, CA

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Cecil replies:

Funny you should ask. The guy who said it just left the
building himself. Horace Lee Logan, founder and longtime
producer of Louisiana Hayride, the country-music radio
show that gave Elvis his big break, died October 13 at
age 86.

In 1954 Sam Phillips of Sun Records sent Logan a demo
recording of the 19-year-old Elvis singing "That's All
Right, Mama" and "Blue Moon of Kentucky," touting this
white kid who sounded black. Elvis was a radical 
departure from the country crooners who were the staple
of Hayride lineups at the time. (To give you an idea, 
one of the acts that preceded Elvis on his first night 
was a yodeler.)

But Logan decided to take a chance. 

For more, see:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/021227.html

STAFF REPORT

Dear Straight Dope:

I was recently reading A World Lit Only by Fire
(1992) by William Manchester. In it he makes a
passing reference to the Pied Piper of Hamelin.
According to Manchester the piper was a psychopath
and a pederast who was involved in some sort of
mass child killing. I realize that many of our
children's stories are based on real events, 
many of them sinister and certainly not the 
type of thing you would want to lull your child
to sleep with, but this seems especially grim.
I was wondering if this was true, and if so
what's the whole story? -- S. Johnson, Dallas TX 

SDSTAFF Eutychus replies:

The quote in question comes from page 66 of
Manchester's book and reads: 

   "The Pied Piper of Hamelin . . . was a real man,
but there was nothing enchanting about   him. Quite
the opposite; he was horrible, a psychopath and
pederast who, on June 24, 1484, spirited away 130
children in the Saxon village of Hammel and used
them in unspeakable ways. Accounts of the aftermath
vary. According to some, the victims were never seen
again; others told of disembodied little bodies found
scattered in the forest underbrush or festooning 
the branches of trees."

Manchester does not footnote this passage and although
he does give a long bibliography at the end of the book,
it's difficult to know exactly where he got it. The
official website of the German town of Hamelin makes
no mention of it, which is no surprise; they still make
a ton of hay on the legend and have an official town
"Pied Piper" to this day. Our own research suggests 
that Manchester got some of the details wrong--among 
other things, he appears to be off about 200 years 
on the date. But he didn't just make the whole thing up.
 
For more, see: 
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mpiedpiper.html

STRAIGHT DOPE CLASSIC - 04/13/1979

Dear Cecil: 

From time to time there is talk that Congress
will reinstate the draft, perhaps including
mandatory service on the part of all
18-year-olds. This brings to mind a question:
why isn't the draft considered "involuntary
servitude," and forbidden by the 13th Amendment?
Has this ever been tested by the courts? If so,
what was the outcome? --Tom G., Dallas 

Dear Tom:  There are a couple promising legal
strategies you might avail yourself of in 
attempting to elude the draft, but the 13th
Amendment dodge isn't one of them. A couple
chumps tried it during the Vietnam era and were
pretty much laughed out of court and into the 
ranks. The amendment was meant to prohibit slavery
and has never been successfully applied to 
military service.  On the other hand, you could 
make a plausible case that the Constitution forbids
Congress to send conscripts off to fight an 
undeclared war, or to conduct a peacetime draft.

The theory here is that while Article I, Section 8
of the Constitution empowers Congress to "provide
for the common defense" and "raise and support
armies," the framers simply meant to establish a
professional army, composed of volunteers. 

This is not as off the wall as it sounds. 

For more, see:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_140b.html
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