Claude Debussy was a French composer in the late 1800s whose music is associated with Impressionism; it's a smooth, almost otherworldly type of sound that feels like you're entering a dream. Years ago I learned Children's Corner, a suite of six movements that are supposed to invoke feelings of childhood. For something about children, it's actually pretty fucking difficult and even today when I listen to it I get flashbacks like I'm suffering from PTSD or something.

Anyway, the movements are called:
Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum
Jimbo's Lullaby
Serenade for the Doll
The Snow is Dancing
The Little Shepherd
Golliwogg's Cakewalk
The last one sounded pretty different from the others, and for years I wondered who the hell "Golliwogg" or what a "cakewalk" was. Eventually I read somewhere that a cakewalk was originally a dance done by American slaves and became known worldwide after it was displayed on the Centennial Exposition in 1876 in Philadelphia. It wasn't until my piano teacher played Children's Corner for me the other day that I decided to look up who Golliwogg is.

Well, it turns out a woman named Florence Kate Upton published a children's book called The Adventures of Two Dutch Dolls and a Golliwogg, and the latter is the name of a ragdoll. The book became a popular and companies made actual dolls named after the character, much like Raggedy Ann and Andy. In case you're wondering what he looks like, he's the dude on the right:

After staring at that for a few moments, I laughed and said to my piano teacher that there's no way this would fly nowadays. But what was incredible is she said, "Oh, why not?" ...Really?