Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto

Tomorrow is our Thanksgiving potluck in the office and being an official member (and resident D.J.) of the Party Planning Committee, my job is not only to make the pasta salad but also to make the music play list complete with all songs that include the words "thank you." In my Google searching I discovered that the phrase "Domo Arigato" from the ever popular Styx song "Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto" is, in fact, Japanese for "Thank you very much." Who knew?!? Intrigued by this I switched gears and headed to Wikipedia to find out more.
The song tells the story of the rock opera Kilroy Was Here in which a rocker was put in a futuristic prison for "rock and roll misfits" by an anti-rock-and-roll group called the Majority for Musical Morality. There are robots working in the prison and Kilroy is able to escape by overtaking one of the robot prison guards, a.k.a. Mr. Roboto, and hiding in his hollowed-out body.


Taking that even further I discovered that "Kilroy Was Here" was an American pop culture expression used most often in graffiti accompanied by a little cartoon man peering over a wall. How it originated isn't exactly known but it was really interesting reading up on all the theories as to how Kilroy came about. Throughout WWII this phrase and the little guy that came with it became a symbol of America's presence in the world, appearing everywhere in the country as well as anywhere the military traveled abroad. Pretty interesting huh? Is this news to everyone or just me?!