The African-American pot washer was listening to his blues once in 1996 when I was working at Hershey Hall in UCLA. The song he was listening to said, "...I got the mojo blues..." etc., etc. I remembered back home in Fresno County I used to eat Mojo potatoes with melted nacho cheese, but this was obviously a completely new use of the word. Actually, I'd heard it many times before, usually in blues songs, but I'd never actually asked anyone what it meant. I just figured it meant something like "a lot" or "heavy," as in, "I've got the heavy blues" tonight.
Anyway, so I asked the pot washer, "What's a mojo?" and he had this delayed reaction, where he just stopped scrubbing what he was scrubbing, and without turning around to face me, tilted his head back toward the ceiling and opened his mouth: "Aaaaaa-haaa haaaaaa haaa-haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-ha ha ha-ha-ha-ha...!" He just laughed like that and never answered me, so I left.
So now, 10 years later, "What's a mojo?"
2006-07-27
22:50:36
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9 answers
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asked by
♣Tascalcoán♣
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Other - Society & Culture