My paternal grandmother, who is of Italian heritage and a second-generation American, described a folk remedy against headaches that was practiced before her day. She said “When a person had a headache, a friend would obtain a basin of water and sprinkle a few drops of olive oil on it, make the sign of the cross and recite a prayer. That was to chase the evil spirits away.” This was also used to make a person stop gossiping. Obviously, this would have been practiced before her family emigrated and assimilated into American culture. It is closely tied to the Catholic church and Catholicism’s deep roots in the nation of Italy. My informant, while still a devout Catholic (as is most of her extended family), did refer to this practice as a superstition, and is far more likely to resort to Tylenol or Advil to relieve a headache than to attempt to cure it through any spiritual means.
The tradition itself seems to reflect elements of both Catholicism (sign of the cross, prayer) and more obscure or pagan religions (chasing away evil spirits), though perhaps my informant uses “evil spirits” synonymously with “demons.” My informant’s description also seems somewhat vague and incomplete, as though it has been transformed through much telling and retelling over time. My conjecture is that the tradition originated many centuries ago, well before the advent of modern medicine, out of the idea that demons or evil spirits are responsible for physical distress. Certainly “magic superstitions,” under which classification this ritual falls, for curing ailments have existed well before even the Roman Catholic Church, and this one was likely Catholicized like many other pagan beliefs, superstitions, and even holidays. As today’s society (at least in America) tends to favor scientific progress as the solution to medical problems (and a host of other problems), beliefs imported from worldwide have tended to fade out in this forward-looking culture.
Author Archives: justinross
UFO Sighting
Both my mother and sister claim to have witnessed a UFO several years ago while driving home from a Target store which is only about a mile from my house in Marietta, Georgia. It was late and dark outside. Through the front window, my mother saw a pair of white lights approaching the intersection outside of the Target. She recalled that the object, which she definitely believed was a craft, was extremely low in the sky – she said maybe the height of a telephone pole. She could make out a boomerang shape as it moved overhead, where to her amazement, it hovered in absolute silence.
While my mother will admit being uncertain as to the craft’s identity, she suggested that it was some form of secret military technology; in particular she indicated that the craft she saw resembled the stealth fighter she had seen in photographs. This is one popular interpretation of unidentified flying objects, and it is a viable explanation for many such sightings, perhaps including this one. Together with this idea of futuristic military (human) technology, it seems the idea of super-advanced alien technology forms the overwhelming majority of the public sentiment on the subject of UFO’s throughout the US and most of the free world. Though many UFO witnesses (and many who hear second hand) ascribe a spiritual nature to their experience, these interpretations and others are far outnumbered by those that focus on the future and progress of the human race. While my mother does not believe in aliens and simply gave an honest account of what she witnessed, people of other cultures would probably have provided vastly different explanations.
Recipe – Baccala (Cod Fish Stew)
The following recipe is from the Italian (paternal) side of my family. The principal ingredient is salt cod or baccala. This dish was served on Good Friday every year before Easter. Though my paternal family, who are mainly Catholics, do not abstain from meat as part of the tradition of Lent any longer, their ancestors did. Fish, however, was not counted among the other meats, and was allowed during Lent. This recipe would have been one of the last served before the breaking of the fast on Easter Sunday. According to my informant, the salting and aging of the fish improves the flavor. This celebratory dinner likely helped to mitigate whatever sense of deprivation anyone (at least fish lovers) felt during the meatless fast. My family also ate the same dish after the midnight Mass at Christmas (!!!).
Baccala (Cod Fish Stew)
Heat:
1/4 c. vegetable oil in a Dutch oven
Add:
sliced onions: 4 large sliced
potatoes: 6 large peeled & cut in chunks
tomatoes: 2 large cans
1 piece of salted codfish which has been soaking 48 hrs. to get the salt out, changing the water frequently
Boil until potatoes are almost done. Add the rest of the cod fish.
My informant added: “I buy around 1 lb. [of salt cod] at the Italian store. This makes a great stew, but only I like it of my siblings!!”
Off-color Gambling Joke
A bank teller is greeted one day by a woman who wants to make a large deposit – approximately $3 million. The woman’s demeanor and clothing do not suggest a person of great wealth, but for such a large amount of money, the teller thinks that the woman should be treated especially well, and that he should take extra steps to make her feel secure in making the transaction. Thus he goes to get the manager.
When the manager returns, he greets the woman and she hands him the checks. When he reads them, he is wide-eyed and asks, “Just out of curiosity, do you mind if I ask what business you run? It seems you are very successful with it…”
She replies, “Oh, I made the money off of bets.”
“What?”
“I made the money betting.”
“You mean betting, as in gambling, like at the casino?”
“No, I just make big bets with people.”
“Your friends?”
“Anybody. For instance, I’ll bet you $100,000 that one of your testicles is blue.”
“What? Are you crazy?”
“No, I’m serious.”
The bank manager is wary, as obviously the woman has been successful with her betting, but on the other hand, he is absolutely certain that neither of his testicles is blue. Just to double check, he unzips and takes a quick peek while standing behind the counter so no one sees it. Sure enough, both sides are totally normal. So he accepts the bet. “Sure, I’ll take you up on your bet.”
“Alright, but we’ll need to wait until tomorrow to verify who wins the bet. I want to bring in my lawyer to make sure there are no legal issues and that the loser pays the winner fairly. I’ll bet you that after 2 o’clock tomorrow, one of your testicles will have turned blue.”
Confused and still somewhat shocked by the proposal, the manager thinks briefly about it and they agree to the bet. He cannot imagine her being able to do anything to cause one of his testicles to turn blue.
When the manager awakes the next morning, he does another check. Still normal. At work, he nervously anticipates the arrival of the woman and her lawyer at 2 o’clock. Every now and then, he takes another peek at himself to make sure both testicles are still normal.
At 2 o’clock, as planned, the woman and her lawyer arrive. The manager quickly checks one more time, and taking them aside, he excitedly tells the woman that he has won the bet.
“Do you mind if I check to make sure?” asks the woman.
Nervously, the manager gives her permission, eager to receive his $100,000 reward.
As the manager unzips for her and she inspects, the lawyer suddenly begins to shout loudly in anguish and bang his head against the wall.
“Is he alright?” the manager asks. “What’s the matter?”
“He’s fine,” she replies, “I bet him $1 million the other day that I could get the manager of this bank to drop his pants for me while he stood there watching.”
his was an Internet joke that my informant received from a friend of his. My paraphrase is actually slightly less graphic than the original version of the joke. It is a complex joke which could strike different hearers as having different thematic implications. When I heard the joke, I picked up the idea of female outsmarting male and that of the lawyer being humiliated.
The joke also features multiple oxymorons, or “appropriate incongruities, ” which according to folklorist Elliot Oring, are the backbone of a joke’s humor. The rich woman’s strange ability to make millions from betting is the first apparent incongruity. This is followed by her assertion that one of the bank manager’s anatomical members is blue, an obvious falsehood. Finally, the lawyer’s emotional eruption seems strange and unexplainable. All of these incongruities are readily corrected and made appropriate, however, by the punchline, delivering a triple dose of somewhat off-color humor.
“Eat garlic and see it rise, Eat onions and forget what happened.”
My informant heard this proverb in Lebanon, his home country. He did not recall the first time he heard it or who he heard it from. He said it is simply an Arabic folk saying that he picked up from friends and family.
This is not the first proverb I have heard that speaks of onions and garlic as aphrodisiacs. Unfortunately, my informant was uncertain of the exact meaning of the second line of the saying. It could mean that eating onions causes one to lose his erection, or that onions cause poor memory. My reaction was to interpret “forget it” as something like “it won’t be going away for days.” In effect, “garlic works, but onions work better,” was my immediate interpretation. On the other hand, it could be a mnemonic (much like our “yellow on black, venom lack; black on yellow, kill a fellow”) for remembering which of the two related herbs is the one that does the trick. As it rhymes in Arabic (Toum, bikoum, Basal, hasal), the proverb incorporates an element of appropriateness, one of the features of most any joke; and obviously, the proverb is for humor and entertainment rather than any kind of edification or instruction.