I thought some of you might get a laugh from this.
A couple of months ago after playing a set at the session, someone asked what the tune name was. I responded “The Maid of Monte Crisco.” I was quickly corrected with “it’s feckin Mount Kisco!”
That’s when I realized I’d been mentally thinking of it wrong for many years. An embarrassing moment for sure! I guess I’d always just glanced at the name and mentally filled that last part in with what’s familiar from literature. :
I spent the rest of the night wondering if my session mates thought I was an idiot.
W-e-l-l, you certainly provided a little innocent amusement The more common fail is to pronounce it ‘Sisco’. Mount Kisko is a village and town in Westchester County, New York state. Dunno why people persist in spelling it ‘Cisco’.
Aw, c’mon; you can say it. Around these parts some say “Varnish”. I like your “Vanish” better, though; then you could call the tune “The Mohel” . But I call it “The Spanish Misfortune”; got that from a kid who misheard me. I like it; it sounds like a venereal pox. Then there’s “The Chinese Chickens”, which was an actual mishearing on my own part .
At a session I once launched into what I announced as “Montezuma’s Revenge”. “Montezuma’s Revenge?” they cried; “But that’s The Stool of Repentance!” “Think about it,” said I.
I love mangled tune names; I’ve probably got a million of 'em. I will be eternally grateful to the green young fellow who pronounced “The Kesh” as “The Quiche”.
Nothing to be embarrassed about as I have butchered many names innocently and intentionally. Often I’ll hesitate in asking a tune’s name because I know that everyone in the session will just shrug their shoulders don’t know.
I was at a friend’s house playing a new jig that I’d learned from a CD, and it being my latest favorite album, I’d been listening to it on the drive there. “What’s it called?” he asked of the tune. Having forgotten the name, I shrugged and replied, “It’s in the car.” And we’ve called it that ever since.
I’m not sure what sort of double fail you mean, Ben, so I will compound my ignorance by presuming you don’t yet know that in the US there’s a famous vegetable shortening brand, Crisco. It’s so dominant that the name is often a vernacular stand-in for vegetable shortening in general. As you might accordingly surmise, “Crisco” would be almost de rigueur as a Yank’s eggcorn for both “Kisco” and “Cristo”. And it’s just as well, because “Cristo” would mark one as suspiciously literate, God forbid.
. But I call it “The Spanish Misfortune”; got that from a kid who misheard me. I like it; it sounds like a venereal pox. Then there’s “The Chinese Chickens”, which was an actual mishearing on my own part 
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