Monthly Archives: March 2024

Rooster Riddle

Q: If a rooster lays an egg standing on a roof in the middle of the day, which way does it fall?

A: Roosters don’t lay eggs!

Context: The informant heard this riddle from her dad as a child, and speculates that all the extra context given in the riddle (i.e. the roof, the time of day, etc) is meant to throw off the listener from the obvious answer.

Analysis: This seems to fit into a trend of ‘catch’ riddles that a) casually introduce a key detail, b) distract the receiver with irrelevant information made to seem important, and c) ask a question that, unbeknownst to the receiver, depends solely on the key detail. The receiver is then meant to feel foolish for missing the obvious.

Horses for courses

Context: The informant heard this saying primarily from her mom as a child; similar to “different strokes for different folks,” this phrase is meant to say that there are different people or things suited for different situations. More specifically, as the informant adds, “not all horses are racehorses.”

Analysis: I was confused when I first heard this, but in context it makes sense – racehorses are meant for racecourses, while others are not. It’s an interestingly horse-specific way of acknowledging individual differences.

Staying stuck in a silly face

When the informant made silly faces as a child, their grandmother would tell them that their face “would stay stuck if [they] kept it in a silly position for a while.”

Analysis: This appears to be a humorous/somewhat friendly way to stop a child from making silly faces, by scaring them into thinking their face will get stuck like that. It takes advantage of children’s gaps in general knowledge.

I didn’t just fall off a turnip truck.

“I didn’t just fall off a turnip truck.” Is a phrase used in Mississippi. I was told that its meaning is somewhat akin to “I wasn’t born yesterday.” An example the informant gave of its use was that when lying to one’s parents about something, they may respond that they didn’t just fall off a turnip truck in order to indicate that you aren’t fooling them. The informant mentioned that it may have come about because turnips were commonly eaten in the area, though felt that a bit strange, as the informant theirself didn’t recall eating turnips regularly.

My best guess of where this proverb came from is that turnips being transported on trucks were a common sight in that region. Turnips are smaller, more compact vegetables, and so more likely to fall from a truck than some other vegetables, and according to my informant may be more commonly seen in the area than others. The turnips that fell from trucks were likely not going to be retrieved by the truck driver, and so were now subject to the joking law of “Finders Keepers” This gives the connotation that a turnip can be easily used/taken, which leads you to the meaning in the proverb being a distancing of oneself from this easy manipulatability. It also helps that the simple action of falling from something can leave someone dazed/dizzy which would leave them easy to confuse, which is another thing the proverb distances the speaker from. 

Bless ___ Heart

To say bless someone’s heart is an insult or a way of making fun of people in Mississippi. The informant said if someone were to say it about them, they would think the person didn’t like them. It’s a way to be fake nice and to curse someone out without actually cursing.

I think that this saying is very similar to euphemisms and an example of tabooistic vocabulary, but rather than replacing a specific phrase it replaces a multitude of phrases by just conveying the intent of the message and the impact the message is meant to have on the listener without having to use a specific example of the misfortune or dislike felt towards or wished upon the subject of the heart-blessing. The fact that the community is Christian is probably a large factor in why this way of insulting people became popular. Since it is looked down upon on a spiritual level to be rude, and especially to curse people, they have acclimated to using words that are kind and well-wishing in an insincere way for expressing their negative emotions towards each other.