Jeanne D'Arc of Body and Soul has outdone herself today (no small feat) in her masterful post Lady Sings The Dixiecrat Double Entendre Blues --mixing Billie Holiday with Trent Lott (via a song named "Strange Fruit" that Ms. Holliday used to sing sometimes, and only sometimes because she tended to throw up afterwards, as it was about lynching,) racism, and the interpretation of words.

From Jeanne:

"Try to imagine Lady Day in an evening gown, a white gardenia tucked in her hair, on stage in a nightclub, singing a graphic song about lynching, while her audience sipped champagne. It's impossible, grotesque. And in fact, Billie was generally reluctant to sing the song, partly because, as you can imagine, it took a lot out of her. In her autobiography she says she threw up every time she had to sing it. But she also had mixed feelings about the song because her audiences so often missed the point. She'd sometimes get bizarre requests to sing the "sexy" song about "black bodies," which unnerved her to say the least. Proof, if you need any, that as often as not, even the most eloquent voice is not heard."

Somehow, and it makes total sense when you read it, Jeanne moves in one linear sequence from Lott to Reagan, to Ashcroft and Southern Partisan magazine. We are truly impressed--not to mention envious, of Jeanne's immense writing talent.