Category Archives: folk simile

“High as a kite” – American

Nationality: American - Caucasian
Age: 20
Occupation: Student - Theatre
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 20 April 2011
Primary Language: English
Language: Conversational Spanish

“High as a kite”

The informant is a 20-year-old Theatre student at the University of Southern California. She is originally from North Carolina.

She said that it has two meanings, either someone is high on drugs or “really, really euphoric.” The informant wouldn’t use it to describe real people but rather to describe the state of someone she saw on T.V. or a theoretical person. She feels that it would be insulting to use it to describe a real person. She thinks she learned this metaphor from her mother, though she doesn’t really remember. Her mother didn’t apply to drugs though, only to really happy people. She felt she expanded it to apply to drugs as being “high” is slang for the altered state one is in while doing drugs. She said that she thought it was kind of a unique saying as people always look at her funny when she says it.

I personally had heard this metaphor before and I thought that it was a pretty standard idiomatic expression. It interests me that her mother didn’t seem to know the drug reference inherent in the phrase and that she would use it only to refer to extremely elated people. This may reflect a certain lack of exposure to druglore in this particular family or perhaps it is a phrase more commonly used in the Western United States rather than the Eastern. As far as what the metaphor means, I think it’s a pun on “high” in that a kite goes pretty far above ground and “high” can also mean currently under the influence of illicit drugs. The use of “high as a kite” to refer to very happy people, however, is new to me. Kites certainly seem fairly happy when they’re flying around and natural “highs” certainly exist, so I can see how this phrase might be construed as such.

A National Post (Canada) article used the metaphor “High as a Kite” in an article describing a killer who was high on cocaine (Zickefoose A11), showing the use of this metaphor as the informant came to understand its meaning. Rosemary Feitelberg used the metaphor, on the other hand as the title for her article on kiteboarding – a combination of wakeboarding and windsurking, citing use of the term as described by the informant’s mother (Feitelberg 6S).

Feitelberg, Rosemary. “High as a Kite.” WWD 05 Jul 2001. 6S. Academic OneFile – Infotrac. Web. 28 Apr 2011.

Zickefoose, Sherri. ” Accused killer ‘High as a kite’ on Cocaine; Laughed in Prison Van .” National Post (Canada) 19 Nov 2008. A11. Lexis Nexis Academic. Database. 28 Apr 2011.

Simile – United States of America

Nationality: Caucasian
Age: 49
Occupation: Piano Teacher, Staff Assistant
Residence: Vancouver, WA
Performance Date: April 21, 2008
Primary Language: English

Happy as a clam at high tide!

Tracy Mettler states: “I may have first heard this phrase when talking to my mom. We were probably talking about somebody else’s disposition. Instead of just saying that person was so happy or excited [this phrase] seemed to be fitting of their mood. All the clam digging enthusiasts look for indications of a low tide so they can dig their limit of clams. This means that when it’s a high tide, the clams are “happy” that they won’t be dug up and taken to a boiling water bath to eventually be eaten!”

Just as my mother recalls first hearing this from her mother, I think I remember first hearing this phrase from my grandmother as well. Personally, I don’t use this phrase very often. If I do, it’s somewhat jokingly just because it sounds kind of silly. Plus, not everyone will understand what it means for a clam when it’s “high tide.” I do recall hearing my grandmother omit the “at high tide” portion of the phrase from time to time.

Many people have heard the simile “happy as a clam,” but few have heard the latter portion, “at high tide” (according to an informal poll during class). For people unfamiliar with the process of clam digging, the inclusion of “at high tide” has no significance, and if anything makes the phrase a bit confusing due to the lack of meaning. Having the qualifier “at high tide” helps to provide an explanation as to why a clam would be happy. Otherwise, we as humans have no ability to ascertain how a clam would be able to experience happiness. Since high tide keeps the clam from being dug up and eaten, a clam would surely be happy during this tidal situation, if clams could feel emotion.

If we really look into this idea of “high tide” as being a reason for the clam’s alleged happiness, does the simile suggest that the clams are happy as a result of having survived a clam digging expedition? Basically, does this added thought of survival change the meaning of the simile at all? Does it imply that the simile should only be used when referring to a person experiencing relief at having avoided a difficult, potentially dangerous, situation? Generally, when I’ve heard this simile, there hasn’t been any deep thought put into its use, in terms of a person having survived a difficult situation. Mainly, it’s the “happy as a clam” portion that’s important, and the “at high tide” is just thrown in, somewhat as an afterthought.

Proverb

Nationality: Scottish, Caucasian
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 30, 2008
Primary Language: English

Folklore: Simile, a “saying”

“It’s as easy as shooting monkeys in a barrel.”

Analysis:

It means like it’s as easy as a piece of cake. There’s even a game out from this, where there’s these monkey with claws and you try to pull them out from a bucket. I learned it when I was in elementary school. It might come from the Mid-West or Southern white… It might refer to slavery. The word “monkey” was used to describe black people. “Monkey porch” implies lazy black people and is pretty derogatory.

My Analysis:

This is a difficult metaphor to decipher, mainly because I had never heard anything remotely similar to this saying. When read closely, it is a cruel picture: having monkeys trapped in a barrel, helpless, and then shooting them is a barbaric way of asserting superiority over something. I’m not sure of Chris’s slavery interpretation, but it definitely signifies superiority and something about trapping an inferior group.  It mocks the easiness of the action.  Of course it would be easy to shoot the monkeys if they are all trapped inside a barrel.