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As I tried to find a title for the Chelsea Clinton blog I posted, I went on an internet detective tour to figure out why the Clintons named their daughter Chelsea.
I thought of "Chelsea Lately" but it is the name of a pretty obnoxious late night show "comedian" Chelsea Handler. Then, I thought of "Chelsea Again" but Chelsea isn't that famous that she needs a comeback.
I thought the name might have to do with the once bohemian Chelsea neighborhood in New York City, which might fit the 1960s bohemian style of the Clintons when Hillary was a radical college student who wrote her thesis on Saul Alinsky.
The Clintons apparently did give their daughter her name from the Joni Mitchell song Chelsea Morning recorded in 1969, which was inspired by the Chelsea neighborhood where Mitchell lived when she composed the song, where she references the glass mobiles which made a "rainbow on the wall" of her apartment. It is a pretty song.
My blog story is really about how Chelsea is neglecting her home life and new husband, so I took the Barbra Streisand song Sadie Sadie Married Lady from the film Funny Girl. Apparently Sadie is a Jewish slang for a married woman. I cannot find further evidence for this, but here is an event, Sadie Hawkins Day, that evolved from an episode in the comic strip Li'l Abner and had became a real-life event. Sadie Hawkins Day is when spinsters of all ages "foot raced" bachelors to get themselves a husband.
In Funny Girl, the "Sadie" is Fanny Brice, a career (singing) girl who gets married, but doesn't give up the stage. Her less successful husband (whatever his reasons are, but could they be a neglectful wife?) gets involved in gambling debt and is sent to prison. Fanny in the end divorces this husband, and continues her show business life, becoming famous.
singing Sadie, Sadie, Married Lady
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Chelsea Morning
By Joni Mitchell
Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning
And the first thing that I heard
Was a song outside my window
And the traffic wrote the words
It came ringing up like Christmas bells
And rapping up like pipes and drums
Oh, won't you stay
We'll put on the day
And we'll wear it 'till the night comes
Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning
And the first thing that I saw
Was the sun through yellow curtains
And a rainbow on the wall *
Blue, red, green and gold to welcome you
Crimson crystal beads to beckon
Oh, won't you stay
We'll put on the day
There's a sun show every second
Now the curtain opens on a portrait of today
And the streets are paved with passersby
And pigeons fly
And papers lie
Waiting to blow away
Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning
And the first thing that I knew
There was milk and toast and honey
And a bowl of oranges, too
And the sun poured in like butterscotch
And stuck to all my senses
Oh, won't you stay
We'll put on the day
And we'll talk in present tenses
When the curtain closes
And the rainbow runs away
I will bring you incense
Owls by night
By candlelight
By jewel-light
If only you will stay
Pretty baby, won't you
Wake up, it's a Chelsea morning