Monthly Archives: May 2016

Knocking on wood

Nationality: American
Age: 44
Occupation: Massage Therapist
Residence: Pasadena, CA
Performance Date: 4/25/2016
Primary Language: English

After declaring something positive regarding his or her future, an observer of this tradition will knock on wood to ensure that the future does not turn out the opposite. Knocking on wood is a way of avoiding a jinx, or the opposite of what one hopes to happen turning into a reality after one expresses that original hope. An observer of this superstition will say “Knock on wood,” literally knock on wood, or do both in order to avoid an ill fate.

My informant always does both, and with a laugh to accompany it because he knows others view it as silly. He doesn’t believe that it literally wards off ill fate, but he does believe that it affects his mental space in a way that manifests into a more positive reality.

I asked him to describe this effect and he said:

“It doesn’t matter whether anyone else is into it, it just matters to me. As long as I get my head ok, then everything else is fine.”

I asked if he learned it from anyone else, to which he said:

“No, I figured it out on my own.”

I asked if anyone else in his group of friends or family observes the tradition to which he replied:

“No, I’m the only freak.”

My informant is a 44-year old massage therapist who lives in Pasadena, CA. He struggled with OCD as a child, and ever since then, has worked hard to maintain a calm inner life. Those with OCD often have their thoughts manifest themselves into ugly realities. They think something irrational, and then they do something irrational. So it makes complete sense that my informant would use this tradition as a technique to avoid that very pattern. I imagine for many, knocking on wood is not just an abstract superstition, but a small yet effective way of quieting their minds.

Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other is gold.

Nationality: American
Age: 60
Occupation: Director of Communications
Residence: New York City
Performance Date: 4/25/2016
Primary Language: English

“Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other is gold” is a chant sung around the campfire by Girl Scouts as long ago as the 1960’s.

This chant encourages young people never to abandon an old friend for the sake of a new one. Because “old” rhymes with “gold,” I assume that the old friends are gold, and the new friends are silver. This implies that there is something more inherently valuable about old friends.

I imagine it works particularly well in a camp environment, where many young people are anxiously seeking social comfort and status. It is easy for them to get caught up in the feverish nature of it all, and abandon old friends for new, possibly more popular ones. However, this chant encourages them never to do so, as a new friend’s value cannot match an old one’s. It doesn’t discourage them from making new friends, but it does advise them to keep in mind the value of relationships that have had a chance to develop over a long time. In this way, it helps to foster an ever-expanding yet stable network of friendships within the Girl Scout troupe. I also believe it serves as a warning to young girls to avoid the cattiness and exclusivity typical of adolescents.

The informant is my mother. She remembers learning this chant at Girl Scout camp in the 1960’s from camp counselors and other girl scouts. It was often performed around a campfire. I asked my mother what the chant means to her to which she replied:

“They are both very precious…An old friend is really valuable because they know you and you’ve come to trust each other. Keeping them close while making new friends seems to make so much sense to me.”

She often repeated it to me as I was growing up. I believe she did so because it is one of the tenements she has lived her life by. She always relishes the opportunity to meet a new, interesting person, but prioritizes her long-standing relationships.

I believe it’s a particularly poignant chant, especially for children to hear. It is very tempting for children to abandon their old friends when they find new, shiny ones. This is a dangerous trap that robs them of people who know and love them. In this way, the chant is a smart, succinct warning against dangerous impulses that exist within every child’s mind.

Deep Throat

Nationality: American
Age: 60
Occupation: Director of Communications
Residence: New York City
Performance Date: 4/25/2016
Primary Language: English

After the Watergate scandal of the 1970’s, journalists in newsrooms across America began to use the term “Deep Throat” to describe a source, or informant, with a lot of previously undisclosed information.

A common way to use the term was “I’m looking for a Deep Throat,” meaning that the reporter was looking for an informant with valuable information that would help to break a story.

The term derives from the nickname given to William Mark Felt, Sr., deputy director of the FBI during the 1970’s, and the secret informant who helped to expose the Watergate Scandal. He was nicknamed Deep Throat by Howard Simmons, managing editor of the Washington Post, in order to keep his identity anonymous. The name comes from Deep Throat, a popular and controversial film in the 1970’s. Because of the popularity of the film, “Deep Throat” became a term used commonly enough so as not to draw any attention to the informant himself.

Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein are the two reporters most famous for exposing the Watergate Scandal. With their reporting alone, they helped to topple an entire administration. More than almost any other event in the latter half of the twentieth century, the Watergate Scandal proved investigative journalism’s immense power to change society. Thus, for my informant, “Deep Throat” carries with it connotations of prestigious and powerful journalism. It reinforces her belief in the profession.

My informant is my mother, a 60-year old woman who spent 20 years working as a journalist for a variety of different newspapers. She remembers first hearing the term from other reporters in the mid-1970’s, after the Watergate Scandal had worked its way into American popular culture and terminology.

I believe my mother enjoys this term so much because it speaks to the hard-working, competitive environment that she experienced within American newsrooms. Those wishing to find their “Deep Throat” weren’t only hoping to break a story. They were hoping to break a big story. She recalls the thrill of finding previously undiscovered sources and beating her co-workers to an important story. According to her, it was a highly rewarding rush, and I believe the term brings her back to that feeling.

It’s particularly interesting and touching to learn the term because it speaks to the fast-paced, ambitious nature of print journalism work, work which was such a huge part of my mother’s life and is now rapidly disappearing due to the emergence of online news outlets. I wonder if the thrill and drive to break big stories is as strong in the absence of a physical newsroom full of journalists looking for their “Deep Throat”.

For more information, see:

Woodward, Bob. The Secret Man: The Story of Watergate’s Deep Throat. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005.

Kama od?

Nationality: Israeli
Age: 25
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/20/2016
Primary Language: English
Language: Hebrew

Original Script: ?כמה עוד
Phoenetic Script: Kama od?
Transliteration: How much more?
Translation: How much more?

It is forbidden for a soldier who has been in the Israeli army for less than 2 years to utter the phrase “Kama od?” or “How much more?” If he does, he will be punished by the older soldiers. My informant elaborated:

“There’s two words that no solider is allowed to say until they’ve been in the army for two years. And those are ‘Kama od?’ ‘How much more?’  Even if it’s an innocent question, even if you’re asking, oh, like, someone says, “Go pick up these boxes.” You say, ‘Oh, how much more?’ Like you’re asking about the boxes, you’re not asking, you know, in that way. But if you say, ‘How much more?’ you’ll get punished.”

My informant is a 25-year old man who spent four years in the Israeli army. He learned this piece of folklore from other soldiers upon entering the army in 2009. It was observed by all soldiers for all of his four years in the army. He describes the army as like a fraternity, full of strictly-enforced traditions passed down from generation to generation. Much like a fraternity, there is a culture of respect and status that favors those who have spent more time in the organization. According to him, it’s a given that everyone wants to leave. But those who have not worked in the army long have not yet earned the right to complain or yearn for an end to their labors.

My informant is a screenwriter, and I think he enjoys relaying this tradition because it is a detail that helps to describe a fascinating world and culture. I also believe this tradition was developed to help break down new soldiers’ sense of entitlement and individuality. It forces them to accept their situation and work within it without causing a disturbance. I imagine this kind of obedience and commitment from new soldiers is crucial to the functioning of any army. It’s also in keeping with the fraternity aspect of the army that a solider would be punished for saying it even if he wasn’t complaining. As my informant says, the older soldiers are just looking for something to entertain themselves with, and enjoy exercising their authority over the new guys.

If it bleeds, it leads

Nationality: American
Age: 60
Occupation: Director of Communications
Residence: New York City
Performance Date: 4/24/2016
Primary Language: English

“If it bleeds, it leads” is a common saying in American newsrooms and TV stations.

My informant is my mother, a 60-year old woman who spent most of her career working in print journalism. She learned the saying upon entering the industry in the early 1970’s. It was often performed by one journalist to another to explain why something violent had recently ended up on the front page, as opposed to other pieces written that day. My informant explained the saying as thus:

“That’s really a TV thing but it’s certainly true with the paper too. It’s true with print also. So the idea is that if there’s been violence, if somebody was shot or killed or hurt, that that would be the thing that would take dominance in the news.”

I asked her what she thought of this phenomenon:

“Yeah, so that’s—it’s a very unfortunate development in news because obviously it means that we—not that the death of somebody isn’t important but the idea that that would be—that that would dominate over bigger issues is very harmful.”

Recalling this saying brought this thought to my informant’s mind:

“It’s interesting to think of how many death images there are. You have a deadline, things are killed, yeah…”

This saying speaks to the universal human interest in violence, and the way in which news outlets have adapted to meet that morbid curiosity. Furthermore, “If it bleeds, it leads” is short, unfeeling, and declarative. It’s an example of the cynical, tough-talking, macho atmosphere that my informant describes pervading newsrooms in America. I’m not surprised that she recalled this saying with a laugh. It probably reminds her of the intensity of her old journalist friends and the environment in which they worked. This phrase also speaks to the hardening of the journalist. They encounter a lot of awful things in this world, and must get used to it in order to write about them objectively. There’s also something morbidly funny about this phrase, and my mother laughed when recalling it. Reporters have to develop a sense of humor about things if they are going to, day in and day out, face and report on the cruelty of the world.