In the last few years, the once musty, corny tiki drink has been restored to its vibrant 1930s self.
And now, in the wake of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, what had once seemed corny, flag-waving jingoism in the screen saga of the man who wrote "You're a Grand Old Flag" and "Over There" instead came across as almost eerily in touch with the current national mood.
Sprinkling tracks with chants like 'BOUNCE' and 'REAL TRAP SHIT', UZ swapped out cheesy electronic female vocals for party-starting male vocals that only became corny once absolutely everyone started doing it.
All the people he talked about were composers and musicians I idolised, and I'm talking the entire gamut from the most avant garde underground artists to stuff that I might even have once considered a bit corny, like Stan Getz.
Really, the story of "Once" ought to appear corny: It's the old "Will this provincial boy with a dream make it to the big lights of New York?" But the emphasis on the realities and impact of making music renders "Once" the freshest show of the group.
Especially when what was once outrageous is now merely corny.
"It may sound corny, but Walt Disney once said that as long as there's imagination left in the world, the parks will never be finished," said the guest relations manager, Ian Benjafield, sitting in a faux Victorian parlor with a slightly embarrassed smile.
Being part of an artist family is at once so cool and so corny at the same time that ideas like, "What if we gave dad a goatee that looks like grass, and then put tiny goats on it?" are totally viable at-home activities.
Dropping g's, Mark Twain-style, does look supremely corny, though The Times once liberally clipped those g's into apostrophes for folksy effect.
