Dave twittered this, the other day. Which got me wondering what the origin of the term was, what was the original thing with bells and whistles on it. Wondering aloud, that is, on twitter. Which led James to send me this link, which initially suggests it's a US train reference (as Meg had suspected) but then veers away at the last minute and plumps for:
"However, it’s more probable the slang sense of the term comes from that close musical relative of the calliope, the theatre organ. Extraordinary instruments such as the Mighty Wurlitzer augmented their basic repertoire by all sorts of sound effects to help the organist accompany silent films, among them car horns, sirens, and bird whistles. These effects were called toys, and organs often had toy counters with 20 or more noisemakers on them, including various bells and whistles."
A bit later in the day, however, another James was kind enough to consult some actual books - his OED and his Oxford Idiom Dictionary both of which suggest it originated "in allusion to the various bells and whistles of old fairground organs".
Which is right? Who knows?
A bit later, while deliciousing the worldwidewords link I realised I'd already tagged a couple of things with whistles. Including a lovely little post from the now sadly defunct MusicThing. Which led me to discover the parade of marvels you get when you type 'Acme Whistle' into ebay. I want all of them.
And it made me think of a thing I'd like to build. And I might actually be capable of doing. An instrument built only of bells and whistles. Anything else would be superfluous.
And then, a bit later, Dave twittered this:
I'm not saying this means anything much. Just that people are nice for sharing. And that when an idle thought gets sprayed round the web it can be more interesting than just keeping it in your head.
Anyway.
(And my silly headline has me fondly remembering the APT)
