3¢

My Shakespearean Drama professor used the phrase 'Mac(k) the Knife' in class today, and it occurred to me that I had no idea what that meant. I've been aware of the phrase for many years, but I never asked about it. This evening I decided to find out. Quick Google searches for "Mack the Knife" and "Mac the Knife" were not instantly helpful, so I ran upstairs to consult my nearest and dearest English major. Sarah, like me, had heard those three words used together but did not know their combined meaning. So I returned to the Internet for answers. I was assuming that 'mac' or 'mack' was a verb, so I went to the Oxford English Dictionary entry for the verb 'mack' (there was none for 'mac'). I didn't find what I was looking for, but I did find a very helpful example of using 'mack' to mean "to be or act as a pimp." The OED gives us:

1971 Who took Weight? 160 I was sho'nuff macking. I had nine..whores.

So that cleared that up. Getting back to 'Mac(k) the Knife,' I returned to Google, did a little more browsing, and found my answer within a minute or two. It seems that either spelling is legitament, so I'll use 'Mac,' which I prefer; I suspect this is because of that elusive Dave Matthew Band song "MacHead" or my past relationship with a MacLeod or both. Getting to the point here, it turns out Mac the Knife is the nickname for Macheath, who is a criminal mastermind of London in The Threepenny Opera, which I believe is a play and not, as the title indicates, an opera.