Meatspace and a whole host of other terms deserve more attention from linguists and folklorists. Here’s another one:
Adds hash tags support to Gherkin and Cucumber through monkey patching.
Monkey patching? Found here.
Posts Tagged: folklore
28
Mar 12
→ Alan Lomax’s Massive Archive Goes Online. Absolutely tremendous news and a tremendous boon to folklorists and the public everywhere.
Here’s the direct link to the Cultural Equity site.
12
Mar 12
Alan Lomax on The Colbert Report
The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive
8
Mar 12
A Louisiana Ghost Story
I love these e-mails:
Even if you’re a non-believer you need to read this!
This happened about 6 months ago on Louisiana Hwy 57, just outside of Dulac, a little town in the bayou country of Louisiana, and while it sounds like an Alfred Hitchcock tale, it’s real.
An Ohio businessman, Saul Rubins, abandoned his disabled vehicle on the side of the road, and attempted to hitchhike. The night was pitch dark in the middle of a thunderstorm. Time passed slowly and no cars went by. It was raining so hard he could hardlysee his hand in front of his face.
Suddenly, through the sheets of rain, he saw a car moving slowly, approaching and appearing ghostlike in the rain. It slowly and silently crept toward him and stopped. Desperately needing a ride, Saul jumped in the car and closed the door. Only then did he realize that there was no one behind the wheel and no sound of an engine to be heard over the rain.
Again the car crept silently forward and Saul was terrified, too scared to think of jumping out and running.. He saw that the car was approaching a sharp curve and, still too scared to jump out, he started to pray and beg for his life; he was sure the ghost car would go off the road and into the bayou and he would then drown!
But just before the curve, a shadowy hand appeared at the driver’s window, reached in and turned the steering wheel, guiding the car safely around the bend. Then, just as silently, the hand disappeared through the window and Saul was alone again.
Paralyzed with fear, Saul watched the hand reappear every time they reached a curve. Finally, scared nearly to death, Saul had all he could take, jumped out of the car, and ran to town..
Wet and in shock, he went into Schmoopy’s. Voice quavering, he ordered two cups of coffee, black, and then told everybody about his supernatural experience. The room became silent and everybody got goose bumps when they realized Saul was telling the truth and was not just some drunk. About 30 minutes later two Cajuns, dripping wet, walked into Schmoopy’s and one says to the other, “Look, Boudreaux, ders dat idiot what rode in our car when we wuz pushin’ it in da rain!!!”
10
Feb 12
Cleaning Pelicans
More e-mail lore:
Down in Lafourche Parish , Louisiana , Boudreaux gets a job with BP helping with the cleanup.
He reports for work and is told to speak to a supervisor about his assignment.
He finds the man and asks, “What it is I suppose to do?”
The supervisor tells him to go to the animal shelter and clean the pelicans.
Two hours later, Boudreaux comes up to the supervisor and says, “Okay. Dey all cleaned. You want me to cook some rice?”
6
Dec 11
The Pastor’s Ass
The Pastor entered his donkey in a race and it won.
The Pastor was so pleased with the donkey that he entered it in the race again and it won again.
The local paper read: PASTOR’S ASS OUT FRONT.
The Bishop was so upset with this kind of publicity that he ordered the Pastor not to enter the donkey in another race.
The next day the local paper headline read: BISHOP SCRATCHES PASTOR’S ASS.
This was too much for the Bishop so he ordered the Pastor to get rid of the donkey.
The Pastor decided to give it to a Nun in a nearby convent.
The local paper, hearing of the news, posted the following headline the next day:
NUN HAS BEST ASS IN TOWN.
The Bishop fainted.
He informed the Nun that she would have to get rid of the donkey so she sold it to a farmer for $10.The next day the paper read:
NUN SELLS ASS FOR $10.
This was too much for the Bishop so he ordered the Nun to buy back the donkey and lead it to the plains where it could run wild.
The next day the headlines read:
NUN ANNOUNCES HER ASS IS WILD AND FREE. The Bishop was buried the next day.
The moral of the story is . . . being concerned about public opinion can bring you much grief and misery … . even shorten your life. So be yourself and enjoy life.
Stop worrying about everyone else’s ass and you’ll be a lot happier and live longer!
9
Nov 11
Three Little Pigs
A bit of e-mailed folklore:
This is a true story, proving how fascinating the mind of a six year old is. They think so logically. A teacher was reading the story of the Three Little Pigs to her class. She came to the part of the story where first pig was trying to gather the building materials for his home. She read. ‘And so the pig went up to the man with the wheelbarrow full of straw and said: ‘Pardon me sir, but may I have some of that straw to build my house?’ The teacher paused then asked the class: ‘And what do you think the man said?’ One little boy raised his hand and said very matter-of-factly… ‘I think the man would have said – ‘I’ll be a son of a bitch!! A talking pig!’ The teacher had to leave the room.
8
Nov 11
Listening Disciplines
Kyle Felker defended his M.A. exams today in a fashion that can only be described as exemplary. His examiners, of which I was one, quickly moved past any concerns about his answers to the exam questions to focus on broader topics. We found ourselves writing down many of his answers: they were that compelling. In particular I liked his notion of there being “listening disciplines”:
I think folklore studies is a listening discipline, as are oral history and ethnomusicology.
I would add cultural anthropology to his list, but his sense of what lies at the core of a discipline, what motivates its practitioners is quite, again, compelling.
17
Aug 11
Netlore: “Class IV Hitch Install”
I got this by e-mail. What’s interesting here is … well, yes, the photographs are interesting, and the object they document is interesting, but what’s even more interesting is that the humor here is in the close analysis of the construction of the object. To be clear, the “object” here is the trailer hitching system, which is … interesting.
Wouldn’t you love to see how the trip went…? Good chance he ended up doin’ some unintended off roadin’ somewhere.
Check the ‘hills’ in the background.Howja like to meet this rig on a two-lane road….coming down the mountain in your direction….power steering works real good now.
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She’s hitched up and ready to roll!!
Amazin’ how the extra weight smoothes out the ride.
Needed to air up the rear tires a bit (’bout 160 psi).
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Added some super heavy-duty chain for extra support on the tailgate, (note the ‘Heavy-Duty ‘S’ hooks to attach the chain)
Also paid-up for some BIG Number 5/16 sheet metal screws to attach the Reese hitch frame to the tailgate (see ‘em there? one on each side…)
Likely two more through the carpet into the floor pan inside….Yep, probably overkill, but didn’t want the possibility of having an axerdent.
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Most of the time was spent on the front porch whittling down that MASSIVE solid pine 4×4 to fit precisely down into the hole in the ball mount receiver.
Note also – The 14′x14′ piece of 3/8′ plywood on the underside of the tailgate to distribute the load more evenly and beef up that tailgate support.
‘A MAN CAN’T BE TOO SAFE’…!!
They are out there, folks……. and they ‘REPRODUCE’! Kindest regards,
29
Jul 11
Backwoods Home Security System
Another bit of email-lore. Some of these are interesting because they are clearly not transcriptions from the oral, but entirely new creations of their own kind.
How to Install a Backwoods Home Security System
Go to a second-hand store and buy a pair of men’s used size 15 or 16 work boots.
Place them on your front porch, along with a copy of Guns & Ammo Magazine.
Put four giant dog dishes next to the boots and magazine.
Leave a note on your door that reads:
Bertha, Duke, Slim & I went for more beer. We’ll be right back. Don’t mess with thuh pit bulls. They attacked thuh mailman yesterday and messed him up real bad. I don’t think Killer took part, but it was hard to tell from all thuh blood. Anyway, I locked all four of ‘em in thuh house. Better wait outside, my friend, and don’t look in thuh winder, ’cause they get riled when thars sumbody lookin in thuh winder. I don’t wanna replace the door again.
Be right back-
Cooter
21
Jul 11
Photography/Video Release Now Available
Last week someone asked me to design a form that he could use to obtain photographic release for a project involving children. A lot of the releases out there assume that you are a photographer working with a professional model. That or they use a lot of off-putting terminology. I tried to come up with something simple, straightforward, and as honest as possible.
Do let me know where it doesn’t work so that I can revise it for future use by others.
30
Jun 11
Boudreaux’s Boat
Boudreaux won a bass boat in a raffle drawing. He brot it home and his wife looks at him and says, “What the hell you gonna do wit dat? Tere ain’t no water deep enough to float a boat witin 75 miles of heah.”
” He says, “I won it and I’m a gonna keep it.”
Thibodeaux came over to visit several days later. He sees the wife and asks where Boudreaux is. She says, “He’s out dere in his bass boat”, pointing to the field behind the house.
Thibodeaux heads out behind the house and sees Boudreaux sitting in a bass boat with a fishing rod in his hand down in the middle of a big field. He yells out to him, “Wat de hell you doin?”
Boudreaux replies “I’m fishin. Wat de hell does it look like I’m a doing?”
Thibodeaux yells back, “It’s people like you what give people from Louisiana a bad name, making everybody tink we are stoopid. If I could swim, I’d come out dere and kick yo ass!”
22
Jun 11
Everything Is a Remix
Kirby Ferguson is an independent filmmaker who has both a gift for rapid fire verbal delivery as well as the editing chops, and amazing erudition, to back it up. His Everything Is a Remix series of shorts are perfect for demonstrating quickly how culture works: he does a nice job of demonstrating how cultural products are influenced by previous products. His focus is largely on films, but other genres get swept into the mix as well.
And here’s his most recent piece as of this post:
3
May 11
Tribal Leadership
Business books are an interesting genre. In another life, I would love to have participated in something like critical business studies that took its cue from critical legal studies. (Maybe this field exists?)
That noted, I have to admit that I have read enough of the books in my time that I recognize the role many books have as consulting pitches and not really as standalone commodities. That’s perfectly acceptable. In some cases the humanities pursue a similar economy: scholarly books aren’t really published for the raw sales numbers they will accumulate but more for citations and/or speaking engagements, which are very similar economy to consulting.
And so when a book titled Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization
2
May 11
Will You give this to my Daddy?
One of the interesting things about being a field researcher based in an university is the number of worlds you get to span. I get email forwards from across the political and religious spectrum. I am trying to collect them as best I can, but so far my only real process is to save them in a folder in my mail application. Occasionally I make a note of them here. The following email arrived pretty much as below, with the type in the same red color as the text itself suggests wearing.
As a Company, Southwest Airlines is going to support ‘Red Fridays.’ Last week I was in Atlanta , Georgia attending a conference. While I was in the airport, returning home, I heard several people behind me beginning to clap and cheer. I immediately turned around and witnessed One of the greatest acts of patriotism I have ever seen.
Moving thru the terminal was a group of soldiers in their camos. As they began heading to their gate, everyone (well almost everyone) was abruptly to their feet with their hands waving and cheering.
When I saw the soldiers, probably 30-40 of them, being applauded and Cheered for, it hit me. I’m not alone. I’m not the only red-blooded American who still loves this country and supports our troops and their families.
Of course I immediately stopped and began clapping for these young unsung heroes who are putting their lives on the line everyday for us so we can go to school, work and home without fear or reprisal.
Just when I thought I could not be more proud of my country or of our Service men and women, a young girl, not more than 6 or 7 years old ran up to one of the male soldiers. He kneeled down and said ‘hi…’
The little girl then asked him if he would give something to her daddy for her…
The young soldier, who didn’t look any older than maybe 22 himself, said he would try and what did she want to give to her daddy. Then suddenly the little girl grabbed the neck of this soldier, gave him the biggest hug she could muster and then kissed him on the cheek.
The mother of the little girl, who said her daughter’s name was Courtney, told the young soldier that her husband was a Marine and had been in Iraq for 11 months now. As the mom was explaining how much her daughter Courtney missed her father, the young soldier began to tear up.
When this temporarily single mom was done explaining her situation, all of the soldiers huddled together for a brief second… Then one of the other servicemen pulled out a military-looking walkie-talkie. They started playing with the device and talking back and forth on it..
After about 10-15 seconds of this, the young soldier walked back over to Courtney, bent down and said this to her, ‘I spoke to your daddy and he told me to give this to you.’ He then hugged this little girl that he had just met and gave her a kiss on the cheek. He finished by saying ‘your daddy told me to tell you that he loves you more than anything and he is coming home very soon.’
The mom at this point was crying almost uncontrollably and as the young soldier stood to his feet, he saluted Courtney and her mom. I was standing no more than 6 feet away from this entire event.
As the soldiers began to leave, heading towards their gate, people resumed their applause. As I stood there applauding and looked around, there were very few dry eyes, including my own. That young soldier in one last act of selflessness turned around and blew a kiss to Courtney with a tear rolling down his cheek.
We need to remember everyday all of our soldiers and their families and thank God for them and their sacrifices. At the end of the day, it’s good to be an American.
RED FRIDAYS —– Very soon, you will see a great many people wearing red every Friday. The reason? Americans who support our troops used to be called the ‘silent majority’. We are no longer silent, and are voicing our love for God, country and home in record breaking numbers.
Our idea of showing solidarity and support for our troops with dignity and respect starts this Friday – and continues each and every Friday until the troops all come home, sending a deafening message that.. Every red-blooded American who supports our men and women afar will wear something red.
By word of mouth, press, TV — let’s make the United States on every Friday a sea of red much like a homecoming football game in the bleachers.
If every one of us who loves this country will share this with acquaintances, co-workers, friends, and family. It will not be long before the USA is covered in RED.
The first thing a soldier says when asked ‘What can we do to make things better for you?’ is…..We need your support and your prayers.
**Let’s get the word out and lead with class and dignity, by example.
IF YOU AGREE — THEN SEND THIS ON.
IF YOU COULD CARE LESS, THEN HIT THE DELETE BUTTON —
IT IS YOUR CHOICE**