Author Archives: Ashley Lax

Proverb

Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: March 16, 2007

“Knock me over with a feather”

My roommate and I, Samantha was sitting and eating dinner one night.  She was trying to have a conversation with me but I could not seem to concentrate.  I kept yawning.  Next I began to complain about how tired I was.  My roommate responded with “knock me over with a feather”.  I had never heard this expression before.  But is makes complete sense.

After yawning repeatedly, and then proclaiming that in fact I was extremely tired, Samantha responded with a very sarcastic statement.  In truth she could never be knocked over with a feather because she is way to heavy for a feather to push.  This statement is very obvious, just as my statement, of being tired, was.

Joke – University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California

Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: March 1, 2007

Lawyer joke

My friend Samantha Telly is a member of the pre law fraternity of the University of Southern California chapter.  One night we got in to a discussion about how she wants to be a lawyer when she is older.  I asked her why she would want to be a lawyer, they have such bad reputations.  Lawyers are known to be stubborn, mean, and aggressive people.  After I told her this, she laughed, saying that her pledge class had, the day before, been discussing lawyer jokes they had heard.  Samantha told me, what she thought was the funniest joke told.

Samantha:   “What is the difference between lawyers and terrorists?”

Me:      “What”

Samantha:      “You can negotiate with terrorists”

I found this joke to be very interesting.  Like most jokes, this particular one, is about a specific group of people.  There are Hispanic jokes, Jewish jokes, and even lawyer jokes.  Also, ironically these types of jokes are always told by the group that they are about.  Blonds, tend to get the biggest laugh when they are together telling blond jokes.  Moreover, Samantha heard this lawyer joke when she was amongst people who potentially want to be lawyers.  The reason why the blonds, the Hispanics, or the lawyers make jokes about themselves, and then tell those jokes to other people in their same group, or folk, is because it is a safe environment.  It is a safe environment to make fun of the stereotypes that have been created about them.

To be more focused on this specific lawyer joke, which compares lawyers and terrorists, is even more interesting, and gives us a unique insight not only into the lawyer folk group but also the “American people folk group”.  After September 11 the United States has become very interested by terrorists, there is always a lot of talk about them; therefore, jokes have developed.  Again, because terrorism is such a frightening idea, Americans have created jokes about terrorism to lighten the mood, and maybe make terrorism seem like less of a reality.  This joke implies that in fact, lawyers are worse then terrorists because you can at least negotiate with terrorists, but lawyers are much more difficult to deal with.

In conclusion, this lawyer joke is a prime example of why jokes are created, and it also give us a unique insight into our beliefs and our culture.

Festival – India

Nationality: Indian
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Chicago, IL
Performance Date: March 1, 2007

My elementary school friend, Ridhi, is Hindu.  Her parents were born and raised in India.  Despite that Ridhi, was born in America she still is very involved in the Hindu culture, participating in all the festivals and traditions.  One of these festivals is Diwali.  It is the festival of lights in the Indian-Hindu culture.  This festival takes place to bring forth the New Year.

Many ceremonies and traditions are involved in this festival.  The first is the prayer, or puja, to the goddess of prosperity, Lakshmi.  The purpose of praying to this specific goddess is to invite her into the house. Supposedly she will cleanse the house of all of the previous year’s “dirt”.  After cleansing the house she will leave it open to the bringing of prosperity.

During this festival, Ridhi’s family makes traditional Indian foods such as roti, chola and dal.  They also dance traditional Indian dances with their family and friends.

Another tradition in this Hindu festival is to put many lights outside the house.  Essentially these lights, light up the house, therefore making it easy for the goddess, Lakshmi to find and then cleanse.  Another “light” tradition is the setting off of fireworks. This tradition is obviously more modern, as fireworks are a need invention.  However, I believe that the fireworks are another form of lighting up the house so that goddess Lakshmi can find it.

Tradition – Columbia

Nationality: Columbian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: New Jersey
Performance Date: February 11, 2007

SPANISH

Si quieres viajar en el ano suguiente, en diciembre 31 alax 12 am sal a corror con una maleta alredeolor del barrio.

DIRECT TRANSLATION

If you want to have travel more, on December 31 at 12 am run with a backpack around the block.

ENGLISH TRANSLATION

If you want to travel a lot the following year, on December 31 at 12 am you should run around the block with a backpack at hand.

I came across this Columbian tradition when my friend’s boyfriend was visiting her from New Jersey.  We had been talking about traveling and it had just been the New Year going into 2007, as it was only February.   Therefore this piece of Columbian tradition came up in conversation.

The above saying translates to, if I person wants to travel a lot in the upcoming year, then on New year’s eve at midnight they should take a backpack (it does not need to have anything in it) and run as fast as they can around the block.  Like most traditions on New Years the person hopes that their wish is going to come true in the New Year.  Ironically for David it did, this is what made this tradition so interesting to me.  He ran around the block with his backpack at midnight on December 31 1999.  In the year 2000 his entire family moved to the United States.  When they moved here their lives changed.  They moved to a suburb of Philadelphia in New Jersey.  David and all of his sibling were now able to attend college and live a new life.

Festivel – St. Charles, Illinois

Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: February 2, 2007

When I was younger my family lived in St. Charles, IL.  This small suburb is about an hour out side the city of Chicago.  When I was young my parents would always take my sister and I to the annual scarecrow festival.  The festival was held in the historic downtown St. Charles every year during the fall.

At the festival was an extremely large display of scarecrows.  There were about five different categories that you got to vote on the scarecrows in.  However, the voting was very minor compared to the rest of the activities there was to do.  The scarecrows merely served to set the atmosphere.  There were tons of games and prizes to win.  There was also plenty of free give-aways and live music and entertainment, not to mention there were a lot of different types of food.

I have several different memories of this festival. I have memories when I was extremely young going with my family including grandparents.  First we would look at all the scarecrows while we ate our corn on the cob.  Then there were animals to pet, so we would play with them and end with sitting on the grass listening to country music.

I have slightly different memories of this festival as I got older.  All of the teenagers would go with all their friends.  It was more of a social event to get together and eat and listen to music.

This festival always got everyone in the mood for fall.  It was usually held a month or so after summer ended, so the air was getting colder and the leaves were starting to turn. However, thanksgiving and Halloween were still in the future.  But most of all it was an event that celebrated the city of St. Charles.  It was a time when everyone, families, teachers, restaurant owners, and priests, got together and socialize outside their normal environment.