Author Archives: Michael Effenberger

Your Name is Mud(d)

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Campus Housing
Performance Date: April 23rd
Primary Language: English

Contextual Information

Time of Interview: April 23rd, 2012, 4:28 p.m.

Location of Interview: Interior of informant’s room, Parkside Apts.

Informant’s First Encounter w/ Folklore: Early childhood (5 or 6 years old), passed down by parents.

When Folklore is Performed: Either when admonishing someone else’s character, or when discussing family history.

 

Transcript:

“From a very young age my parents were telling me, unless they were lying to me, that I am related by marriage to Dr. Samuel Mudd, aka the origin of the idiom “Your name is mud,” which he got after setting John Wilkes Booth’s broken legs on the evening of the assassination. Um, he didn’t know that Booth had just killed the president, so he was sentenced to prison and served, like, four years in prison for being a doctor and, um, was pardoned by President Andrew Johnson. Um, his name was cursed! His name was Mudd, and his name became “mud” and, fortunately, some ancestor of mine married away from it so I don’t have that name anymore!”

 

According to my informant, after Dr. Samuel Mudd setting John Wilkes Booth’s broken leg, he received several accusations of conspiracy and possible involvement in the Lincoln assassination. With his reputation tarnished, the once esteemed name of “Mudd” became as valuable as “mud,” hence the saying. That being said, my informant was quick to point out that Mudd was only doing his duty as a practitioner of medicine, and that he was not aware of any evidence that could have possibly tied Dr. Mudd to the actual assassination. The idiom is often used to describe someone who has either betrayed their values or had none to begin with.

The Scottish Curse

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Student Housing
Performance Date: April 21st
Primary Language: English

Contextual Information

Time of Interview: April 21st, 4:56 p.m.

Location of Interview: Interior of Informant’s Room, Arts and Humanities

Informant’s First Encounter w/ Folklore: Freshman Year of Private High School

When Folklore is Performed: During theatrical production of the play Macbeth

 

Transcript:

“Basically, if you said Macbeth, the show was cursed. To reverse the curse, you had to spit on the stage, run seven laps around the theatre, say the name of the Bard while hopping up and down and spinning outside the theatre, and apologize to everyone for naming the Scottish play. I never did it, but one of my friends did once and the upperclassmen made her do all of it.”

 

In theater, when the play is subject to so many variables such as timing, coordination, and memorization, any constant or luck charm will help. The ability to refrain from saying the title of the play serves as a sort of placebo, aiding in everyone’s efforts to complete what is often believed to be a cursed play. Those who break this one constant are forced to perform ridiculous tasks not too appease the fates, but instead to pull themselves back into focus. This particular superstition has been mentioned and parodied numerous times in pop culture [1].

 

[1] In Season 15, episode 4 of the Simpsons, titled “The Regina Monologues,” in which the Simpsons go to London. Ian McKellan was the actor playing Macbeth in the episode. Every time someone said “Macbeth”, McKellan always got hit by a lightning bolt.

The Orchestra Pit

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Student Housing
Performance Date: April 21st
Primary Language: English

Contextual Information

Time of Interview: April 21st, 4:53 p.m.

Location of Interview: Interior of Informant’s Room, Arts and Humanities

Informant’s First Encounter w/ Folklore: Freshman Year of Private High school

When Folklore is performed: Amongst freshman theater students at Informant’s High school

 

Transcript:

“In high school theatre, everyone was convinced that the seniors our freshman year had sex in the orchestra pit and on every couch, even though our crew of theatre nerds was intensely prude and had no evidence whatsoever. But whenever we went down to the pit we all freaked out about accidentally touching dried bodily fluids and catching an STD. In our defense, the pit was dark and dirty, so the idea that the upperclassmen had lots of sex down there isn’t entirely unproven. Or the kids who were two and three years older than us just liked to make up stories about people having sex in the pit and the green room!”

 

The transition between junior high and high school can often be a jarring one. Homework is increased, the race for college begins, and the dating scene finally becomes a reality. With so much change occurring, one often needs some event or story to celebrate the passing of such a liminal period. Fortunately for my informant, her theater crew was more than willing to oblige.

“Margarita and Brigeta”

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Student Housing
Performance Date: April 21st
Primary Language: English

Contextual Information

Time of Interview: April 21st, 4:50 p.m.

Location of Interview: Interior of Informant’s Room, Arts and Humanities

Informant’s First Encounter w/ Folklore: Very Early childhood, one of her earliest memories

When Folklore is Performed: At night with children or grandchildren.

 

Transcript:

My mom used to tell my this story about two princesses, Margarita and Brigeta, who were mermaids with human parents who lived in a castle with indoor moats. The mermaids grew up and fell in love with human princes who wanted them to be humans too, so they went to their aunt Yolanda and asked for legs, because she could grant them one wish. But Yolanda misheard them and granted them shake and bake chicken legs as their one wish instead. They cleared up the misunderstanding, but it was too late. When the mermaids told the princes, they were sad, but they got married anyways because the princes loved them for who they were. And they all ate lots of chicken legs at their huge double wedding and lived happily ever after in the castle with indoor moats!

 

This is a story that the informant’s mother’s parents would tell her and her siblings when they were children, and have continued to pass it down with every new generation by simply switching out the names and the curse that they receive. In doing so, each generation continues to pass down their take on an important lesson in love, while doing so in a way that is easily understood by children.

The Spanking Branch

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Student Housing
Performance Date: April 20th
Primary Language: English

Contextual Information

Time of Interview: April 20th, 6:22 p.m.

Location of Interview: Interior of Informant’s Room, Arts and Humanities

Informant’s First Encounter w/ Folklore: Early childhood w/ Dad

When Folklore is Performed: At family gatherings.

 

Transcript:

“So when my dad was like 10 his mom used to keep a willow branch on top of their fridge that she used to spank him and his siblings. One morning when they came home from school, she was upset because it had been snapped in half. She asked each of the kids one at a time and no one admitted to it, so she grabbed another branch and spanked them all. Then when my grandpa got home from work, he noticed that the kids were all upset at the dinner table. He asked what the problem was. My grandma explained that one of them was lying about breaking her stick, and my grandpa laughed. “Oh, I broke that this morning when I decided to grab a bite of ice cream for breakfast”

 

The informant claims that this story is often brought out at family gatherings, and is embellished a little bit more with the various siblings’ own spins on the tale. Despite the individual flourishings, the moral remains the same: while people get older, such as the informant’s grandfather, it does not mean that the youth ever has to go away. It’s fitting, then, that the informant’s dad’s siblings all relay this story while enjoying themselves and having a good time with their family, remembering some of the “older days” while still maintaining their own youth.