Author Archives: Audrey Looby

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 2/25/15
Primary Language: English

“Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.”

 

The informant was born and grew up in Hawaii before coming to the University of Southern California to achieve her undergraduate degree in Psychology. She is half Filipino and half Japanese.

 

She has heard this proverb many times, hither in books or advice that her parents gave her, and she has said it many times as well, and she has yet to encounter anyone who has not heard of this proverb. She reported this proverb after being asked what her favorite proverb is or what is the one that is used most often.

 

This proverb is generally explained in a story. If you are gathering eggs from your chickens, and put them all in one basket, then if you drop that basket, all of your eggs are gone. If you put the eggs in multiple eggs, you can drop one of the baskets, then you will still have other eggs to make an omelette. In other words, you must not put all of your hopes and rely entirely on just one option, because if that one thing fails, then you lose everything.

This can be applied to many different things. Stocks are a good example. This proverb recommends diversity of investments, so that if one stock does horribly, there is still money in other stocks to fall back on. It can also be used to advise apply to more than one job or college, because if you don’t get that one acceptance, then you are left with nothing.

This proverb advises always having a backup plan. This is a big idea in American culture, always having something to fall back on. This may be in large part due to the ambition of many Americans, constantly striving to be the best possible, to achieve the highest ranking, but if that is not possible, you don’t want to completely crash and burn. To prevent that, people have backup plans, something to fall back on, skills to all back on. This proverb supports this plan.

 

For another definition of this proverb, please see: “put all eggs in one basket.” Idioms by The Free Dictionary. Web. 30 April 2015. <http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/put+all+eggs+in+one+basket.>

The Loch Ness monster!

Nationality: American
Age: 49
Occupation: executive assistant
Residence: Santa Monica, CA
Performance Date: 2/16/15
Primary Language: English

“The Loch Ness monster! He’s the creature that lives in the depths of Loch Ness, Scotland. Uh, we think we saw him when we were young. Um, and it’s really and it’s in a loch, and it’s really deep, and it’s um, hazy and fuzzy and stuff, so it seems like there’s creatures all around, and they saw that her name is Nessie.”

 

The informant is an American woman, born in California. She grew up there for the first 10 years of her life, then moved to Belgium when her father was stationed there, and stayed there for 6th through 8th grade. She stayed in an American neighborhood, but there was still interactions with European culture, and her family would take frequent trips to the nearby countries.

 

The story was provided after asking after urban legends that the informant believed in, or has perhaps even encountered at some point in her life.

 

The Loch Ness monster is one of the more infamous legends known internationally, comparable to the Chupacabra or the Yeti. Most people know at least of the monster, that some serpent, dinosaur-like creature who lives in a very deep, very murky lake in Scotland. Commonly referred to as “Nessie,” she is Scotland’s national urban legend. There are festivals related to the monster, t-shirts and knickknacks for the tourists who come trying to see the monster. The Scottish are very defensive of Nessie and a large percentage of the population believes that she exists.

There are also those who kind of believe in the legend, but with a twist. She is a common source of conspiracy theories. mostly that the government is testing submarines in the lake or something similar. For them, this is a more believable explanation than a primordial monster. Regardless of what the creature actually is, many people believe that something exists beneath the waters of Loch Ness.

The informant is one such person. She likely had heard stories about the monster when she was growing up, and when she went to the lake in Scotland, she was looking for the creature. So, whenever she saw something even vaguely resembling the monster, she was convinced that that is what she was seeing. Or she did see the creature. That’s the thing about urban legends—they might very well be true. As the informant says, the lake is very murky. It is located deep within the mountains of Scotland, a place that seems magical, where everything could be possible. There could be all sorts of wonderful creatures hidden in that lake. It is certainly possible that Nessie exists.

 

For another version of this story, please see: “Legend of Nessie.” The Ultimate Loch Ness Monster Site. Web. 30 April 2015. <http://www.nessie.co.uk.>

Day of the Dead

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 25
Occupation: PhD student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/29/15
Primary Language: Spanish

“Una de las tradiciones que es muy popular en la universidad donde estudié mi licenciatura (la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México) se celebra cada primero de noviembre, el día de los muertos. Una de las actividades que se efectúan en esta festividad es la de construir altares y ofrendas para honrar a los muertos. En esta universidad las ofrendas son especialmente gigantescas. Se acostumbra a que los estudiantes de diferentes facultades se reúnan para construir enormes calaveras con adornos artísticos usando flores de cempasúchil.”

 

“One of the traditions that is very popular in the university where I did my undergraduate work (the National Autonomous University of Mexico) happens every first of November, when the day of the dead is celebrated. One of the activities that includes this festivity is to build offerings or altars honoring the deceased. In this university the offerings are famous for being gigantic. It’s very common for students from every school to get together to create enormous skulls along with artistic decorations using marigolds.”

 

The informant is a PhD student at the University of California, studying Electrical Engineering. He is from Mexico City, Mexico, where he was born and lived most of his life. His native tongue is Spanish, but he is fluent in English, as well. He got his undergraduate degree at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, which he graduated from in 2012. He enjoys ballroom dancing in his free time.

 

The informant was asked to send the collector a description of a holiday celebrated in Mexico that has a particular tradition associated with it. He typed it first in Spanish, then was kind enough to translate it. As he says, this tradition was practiced at his undergraduate university, though he had celebrated the holiday all his life.

 

The Day of the Dead is celebrated on the first day of November. The holiday’s main purpose is the gathering of friends and family to pray for loved ones who have died. The holiday originated in Mexico, and originally was celebrated at the beginning of the summer, but was moved after the colonization of the Spanish to correspond with All Saints’ Day and All Souls Day. The celebration can often last three days, beginning on All Hallows’ day to make the alters; Day of Innocents, to pray for dead children’ and Day of the Dead, for lost adults.

The altars are the main focus of the holiday. On them, people will place memorabilia from the dead person, whether it is pictures or their favorite food or sometimes they will play their favorite music. toys can be brought for children. Often times, there will be marigolds, the traditional flower in Mexico to honor the dead. Altars can be located at the cemetery where the deceased is buried, or within people’s homes if they are far away from the cemetery.  Family members can spend all night at the altar, praying. Most public schools create their own altars, avoiding religious symbols that might exist on other altars.

The informant’s university also builds its own altars. It is famous for building especially large altars in comparison to other schools, and that is a source of pride for the university (showing how important this holiday is). The students get together to decorate skulls, a major symbol for the holiday. In some places, people wear skull masks or make chocolate or sugar skulls for the day. At the informant’s university, the skulls become works of art, decorated with marigolds to show respect for the dead.

Band laps

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/13/15
Primary Language: English

“You take a lap. You have to, like, run around the entire band and if, like, Bartner, or something happens that is about you, related to your name, where you’re from any like quirky traits you have, activities you do. [The purpose:] to point out that you have associations with that.”

 

The informant is a member of the University of Southern California Spirit of Troy. She is a sophomore, both in the school and in the band ranks, studying Computer Science and Computer Engineering. She plays alto saxophone and has travelled with the band to the Weekender and to Notre Dame.

 

Th informant was asked of any band traditions that take place during a practice. She had first learned and experienced this tradition at her first full band practice, and has participated in it ever since.

 

The first thing to know about the marching band is that usually a week or two after joining the band, every one is given a band name, often referred to as their “real name.” For some people, that becomes the name they are known by for the rest of their time in band. The are often only a few words long, but some have been as long as the verse of song. They are often based on traits that the person has or something that they did, and they often tie back to some kind of popular culture, like a movie or book. Some people are even given two names, in which case they are “so-and-so” AKA “something-else.” There are a lot of traditions that are attached to these band names, including taking a band lap.

Practices can be long and kind of boring, at least for rowdy college students, so there are many band traditions that are meant to pass the time and release restless energy in order to get more work done during practice. The band is a group of volunteers, so it is important to keep people entertained enough to keep coming back. One custom, meant to entertain, is taking a band lap. Everyone must constantly be on the look out for an excuse to take a lap, or to make someone else take a lap. The most common reasons to do so are if leadership says something related to someone’s band name, saying the city or state where someone is from, or some clearly identifying feature or characteristic of the person, like “chorus” (in reference to the location of the song, but pertaining to choral people) or “sexy” (anyone who thinks they’re sexy takes a lap). There was one time, the informant shared, where the band was playing “Play That Funky Music” and the director starting singing the main line: “Play that funky music, white boy…” and all of the white males in the band had to take a lap. That kept the band pacified and laughing enough to finish playing the song without outbursts.

Another purpose for taking a lap is to condition the band. A lot of stamina is required to survive a game day, where a band member may be on their feet for up to 12 hours at a time with little to no sitting down. Taking laps periodically during practice keeps band members in shape and more able to stand for such an extended period of time. Also, as the informant mentions, laps just point out that you have an association to that trait or name. It is possible to see who else in the band is Irish by seeing who takes and Irish lap (in the case of “Beat the irish” for notre dame [opposing teams and their mascots do not earn the respect of having capital letters]) with you. It is a way to bring people, who might never have met in the more than three-hundred person band, closer together and encourages connections with other sections.

There are also particular ways to take a lap. Under normal circumstances—mostly during music practice but under other instances, as well—the person whose name, characteristic, or home state was mentioned takes a lap around the entire band, including directors, silks, and all of the instruments, but not including twirlers or prop crew (if they are far away). This is always done in a counter-clockwise rotation. If the band is working on drill for a show, or during a gig when it would not be prudent to run around to the confusion of the audience, then a lap is taken in place, still counter-clockwise. If the band is at attention, then no laps are taken until after the band is put at ease. Then people can do make-up laps for the time when they were at attention. If a band member is sitting down or it is physically impossible to take a lap, but the band is not at attention, the they will do a “finger lap” and point their right index finger to the sky and move their hand in a counter-clockwise direction. There are also more local instances for taking a lap. The informant had a section leader, for example, who would encourage “Galen Center laps” during basketball and volleyball games. The band member would then have to run around the inside of the Galen Center. This is not a band-wide occurrence, just a section-wide one. Other sections have their own special lap circumstances. The flutes, for example, take laps whenever the first letter of their name is called. Since the marching band divides its music into sections with “A,B,C, etc.” letters get mentioned a lot.

One hundred steps

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 19
Occupation: student
Residence: Shanghai, China
Performance Date: 2/25/15
Primary Language: Chinese

“Basically, yeah, one of our common sayings is that if you, you know, walk, like, a hundred steps after you eat your food, it helps you live longer.”

 

The informant is a 19 year old, undergraduate student at the University of Southern California, studying accounting. He was born and lived in Shanghai, China for most of his life. He spent his high school years at a boarding school in Connecticut, before coming to college in California. He still spends his summers back in China, where he likes writing music and working on potential future business projects.

 

The informant was asked if there were any common sayings that he heard in China. He had heard this saying from his family, often after meals.

 

The Chinese are renowned for their medicine practices. They are largely responsible for what many call “holistic medicine” today—acupressure, acupuncture, and herbal remedies. They are very interested in health and have many folklore remedies, as a result. This particular one, of walking a hundred steps after one eats, is just another of such remedies. Exercise is always a good thing, and walking after a meal can help circulate the blood in the body.

Why 100 steps? Well, 100 is an important number in Chinese culture. On a baby’s 100th day, there is a large celebration. A hundred is also ten times ten. Ten is a holy number, as it is the sum of the first four numbers (1+2+3+4), and people have 10 fingers and 10 toes. Ten would be too few of steps to walk, so the Chinese say 100  to maintain the holiness of the numerical symbolism, while still making it a practical way to maintain health.

It is interesting that the Chinese, with this saying, have people exercise after they eat. In America, there is the saying that you should wait to swim until an hour after you have eaten. This is thought to protect from cramps, and therefore drowning. The Chinese would likely disagree with this way of thinking.