Chrysti the Wordsmith > Radio Scripts

For decades, the shape of the square has provided a positive metaphor for balance, honesty and wholesomeness. Consider its role in the expressions square shooter, referring to an honest person; and square deal, synonymous with a fair bargain. And a substantial, satisfying plate of food is considered a square meal. My first exposure to the square meal metaphor came from my father, whose favorite WWII memories included getting to know interesting new army cohorts while eating "three squares a day."

Along about the 1920s, American jazz musicians turned the concept of the solid, wholesome square on its head. Its equilateral form suggested conformity and predictability to the hipsters of the 20th century. In jazz slang, a square was someone who couldn't or wouldn't embrace the music and philosophy of the jazz world. What's more, squares lived in Squaresville, a leaden world of schedules and stultifying daily responsibilities with no avenues of creativity.

The jazz player's square was also reinforced by the boring predictability of a 1-2-3-4 musical beat. In hipster sign language, drawing a box in the air, like a band director's baton indicating 4/4 time, indicated squareness. A quotation from a 1959 article in the New York Times Magazine says, "In the late Nineteen Twenties, an old word acquired a new meaning in the American language. The word was "square," and the world of jazz blew it into everyday usage...A square was someone who did not understand their style of music...a square peg in their musical circles."

Radio Script > Square