Author Archives: Zoe Warganz

How to eat Poi

Age: 44
Residence: Maplewood, NJ
Performance Date: 12/27/2010
Primary Language: English

Poi is a traditional Hawaiian food, essentially a paste of mashed up taro root. The traditionally polite way to eat poi is with the first two fingers. To eat it with only one finger suggests that you are either stingy, or not really appreciative of the food. Eating it with three or more fingers indicates greed.

Nicole learned about eating poi while she lived in Hawaii for some years in her childhood. It was around fourth grade, and she learned it from her classmates at the public school. For Nicole, this particular tradition stuck with her, because even though she is not a native Hawaiian, and she does not identify with the culture, it is still apart of her child hood experience (Nicole moved around a lot, being the child of a naval officer).

Nicole’s particular remembrance of this tradition is indicative of the need to learn about and honor the culture you are living in, particularly if it is not your own. The practice itself—the number of fingers correlating with etiquette—suggests a fairly universal concept. That is, the idea of moderation being a hallmark of civilized ritual eating.

Proverb-Nautical

Age: 44
Performance Date: 12/27/2010
Primary Language: English

“Red sky at night, sailors delight. Red sky in the morning, sailor takes warning.”

Nicole heard it from her father, who was a Navy sailor. While she herself doesn’t sail, she like the saying, because it reminds her of her father.

Naval culture is rife with folklore. The sea has always been notoriously fickle and unpredictable, and so many seafarers found that superstition and somewhat magical indicators of conditions to be just as reliable as any other source. This particular phrase also has some Biblical allusions, and the danger of a life at sea may sometimes manifest I a stronger religious faith.

There is some scientific basis for this proverbial observation. A high concentration of dust particles creates a red sky at night. This usually indicates high pressure and stable air coming in from the west. Generally, good weather will follow. A red sunrise reflects the dust particles of a system that has just passed from the west. This indicates that a storm system may be moving to the east. If the morning sky is a deep fiery red, it means a high water content in the atmosphere. So, rain is on its way.

Annotation: Also found in the library of congress online database: http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/weather-sailor.html

As well as similar sayings in the Bible: (Matthew XVI: 2-3,) Jesus said, “When in evening, ye say, it will be fair weather: For the sky is red. And in the morning, it will be foul weather today; for the sky is red and lowering.”

Proverb-Military/Time Managment

Age: 44
Residence: Maplewood, NJ
Performance Date: 12/27/2010
Primary Language: English

“To be on time is to be late, to be early is to be on time”

Nicole learned this proverb from her father as a child. She suspects that he picked it up from being a sailor in the U.S Navy. Punctuality is highly prized both in the military services, and, by extension Nicole’s family. It has really been a phrase to live by for her, and she has tried to instill habits of punctuality in her own family, with mixed results.

This proverb makes sense in the context of military personnel and their families. Military efficiency is based firmly in precision, accuracy, and punctuality. Being late could cause a disaster. Even in a civilian life, this proverb can be indicative of the fast-paced American life, with schedules so packed full that to be just on time is not enough.

New Year’s Black-eyed Peas

Age: 44
Residence: Maplewood, NJ
Performance Date: 1/1/2011
Primary Language: English

On New Year’s Day, cook black-eyed peas (usually with the bone from a Christmas ham), and eat at as many peas as the year (for example, 11 peas in 2011) for good luck.

Nicole learned it from her mother, because Nicole’s father’s family had always done it, and when her parents married, they adopted the tradition. It has been maintained as custom through at least three generations. This is a southern ritual (Nicole’s father is from Virginia), modified from pre-civil war Sephardic Jewish tradition.

There are records of Sephardic Jews eating black-eyed peas for luck on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Of course, the addition of pork was instituted somewhere along the line by non-Jewish southerners who adopted the practice. This is an indication of the American practice of blending old cultural customs to form new ones.

Annotation: also found in The Christian Science Monitor, Dec 30, 2010

Harvard Bridge

Age: 44
Residence: Maplewood, NJ
Performance Date: 1/4/2011
Primary Language: English

Interview:

“One of the bridges across the Charles River in Boston is measured, not only in feet, (it’s about a few thousand feet long or something), but also measured as 360 “Smoots” long. In fact, I think there’s a plaque or something on the bridge, which gives the measurements. Smoot was a guy in a Harvard club, who had to lie down, make a mark, get up, lie down again, and measure how long the bridges.”

Joe heard this story sometime during his freshman year at Harvard University in 1984.

Really, Oliver Smoot was a pledge at MIT in 1958. Being the shortest pledge, his brothers measured the length of the bridge by flipping him end over end, the whole way across. The bridge is approximately 2,164ft, or 364 Smoots +/- one ear.

The story is published by the Lamba Chi Alpha Fraternity chapter at MIT, and the “smoot marks” are repainted every year. Joseph’s version of the story named Smoot as a member of Harvard club, rather than an MIT undergrad, which demonstrates a level of multiplicity and variation.