Category Archives: folk simile

“Cold as a Cucumber” and “Hot as Blue Blazes”

Nationality: American
Age: 83
Occupation: Retired Nurse
Residence: Tulsa, OK
Performance Date: March 16th, 2016
Primary Language: English

The informant is my grandmother, a Cherokee woman born in 1932. She worked as a nurse for her entire career, though has been retired for sometime.

In this piece, my grandmother talks about two smilies she learned from my grandfather: “cold as a cucumber” and “hot as blue blazes”.

M: Your Aunt said that you can use similes?

Me: Yes, ma’am.

M: I used to say… well, I guess I still say it… I used to say “cold as a cucumber”.

Me: Okay. Do you remember where you first heard it?

M: Your grandpa started saying it, and I then I started saying it ‘cause of him. He probably heard it from one of his brothers when they would work on the farm. He also would say “hot as blue blazes,”

Me: Do you know what that means?

M: No… I don’t think so. I guess I never really thought of what it meant.

Me: I think it means that the blue part of the flame is supposed to be the hottest.

M: Oh… that must be why he said it. Well, he would say both of those things. When you and Alyssa would be coming in out of the rain into our house, daddy would say “These kids are a cold as a cucumber” and give you both big hugs.

Me: I remember that.

M: And when you both would jump out of the shower, or when your mom would have a fever, he’d say “this child is hot as blue blazes!”

Me: So, do you say it because it reminds you of Pa?

M: I say it because he got it stuck in my head, but it does remind me of him.

I directly remember my grandfather using the simile “hot as blue blazes”. When I would get out of the bathtub, my grandfather would tell me that I was “hot as blue blazes”. I think my grandma was honest in the last thing she said: the smilies are stuck in her head, but they’re stuck in her head because of my grandfather. Whether she knows it in the moment or not, she’s reminded of my grandfather when she says “hot as blue blazes”. I directly talk about why the similes make sense: the blue part of the fire is the hottest, so calling something “hot as blue blazes” means whatever you’re about to touch is bound to be really hot.

“Life’s a shit sandwich”

Nationality: american
Age: 60
Occupation: accountant
Residence: denver, colorado
Performance Date: 4/21/15
Primary Language: English

Proverb that was said in RG’s family: “Life’s a shit sandwhich, the more bread you have the less shit you have to eat”

Who told you this proverb?

RG: “I think it was my Aunt Arlene. She would say it a lot.”

What does it mean to you?

RG: “The connotation is the more money you have the less shit you have to eat. Basically life is hard except if you have more money it’s less hard. I think it’s supposed to be a motivation to make more money. So people with more money have a better life I guess. My Aunt Arlene was very impressed with money”

This proverb was interesting mainly because it had kind of a negative message. While many proverbs seem to be enlightening, this one kind of promotes greed. I also thought it related nicely to the “New Jersey joke” that was also told by RG. Both contained vulgar language and a vulgar connotation which plays into the stereotypes of people from New Jersey being rude.

Creationist Cat

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA; Tyler, TX
Performance Date: 4/29/15
Primary Language: English

While conversing with an informant about cyberlore, internet cats, cat videos, and the like, she told me about “Creationist Cat,” so I asked her to elaborate in an interview.

Informant: “There’s this thing on the Internet called ‘creationist cat,’ and it’s sort of a parody of creationist ideals… I watched the videos all the time ‘cus I think they’re entertaining and funny. And… usually he does sort of like, parodies… the cat is actually, like, made to talk, and he does parodies of like the most, sort of, extreme and irrational creationist ideals, but it’s satire. He’s acting like he really believes in it, um and, I don’t know like one example is, he did a TED talk, or a ‘TED’ talk – not obviously a real one – about how Noah’s ark was real and he goes on about how like he can talk to other animals and they all vouched for it and it was actually a real thing that actually happened and, yeah it was really funny.”

Collector: “So why do you think that the creator of the cat videos is doing this, like, what’s the point?”

Informant: “Um, I think mostly for entertainment, but I also think it’s maybe rooted in, like a desire to illegitimize that whole theory of thought, you know, like making it seem silly so that people who are creationist might be like, ‘oh, this is actually silly.’ OR just for the entertainment of people who already reject that entire mass of ideology.”

Collector: “Yeah, and who did you learn about these cat videos from?

Informant: “Um, I think it was on like suggested, like, ‘what to watch’ on YouTube, you know like a suggestion and I saw one video and I started like, looking for more content from this, because I thought that it was just, really funny”

Collector: “What is your personal opinion on the topic?”

Informant: “Um, I don’t know, I just like cats in general, but it sort of makes it even funnier what he’s trying to do, ‘cus if it was just some person doing it, it would seem more hateful, but since it’s a cat, it makes it… I don’t know, it like softens the blow, almost? Yeah, so I mean, um, that’s probably I don’t know, that’s probably why I like it so much”

Collector: “Haven’t cat videos been made before?”

Informant: “I think it’s a play off of that… ‘cus like cat videos and like, cats are so related to the Internet, you know, I don’t know, they’re so big, and now… maybe just cause like cats are awesome, actually, I see it, when like you have someone who’s in the internet all the time, they’re a lot like a cat. Like, you know, like, very secluded, they’re sedentary, you know, they’re maybe not as friendly, so maybe that’s why they relate to cats so well. And that’s why they became such a big thing”

As almost any frequent visitor of meme sites and YouTube will tell you, cats are a big deal on the internet. Some people have gone beyond simple memes and videos, and used their computer skills to create more elaborate content, such as Creationist Cat. As evidenced by the informer’s experience, internet cats can be used for many purposes, including entertainment and political/religious commentary. Creationist Cat is a prime example of the combination of those two.

The no-flip rule for fish

Nationality: American
Age: 26
Occupation: Unemployed
Residence: San Diego, CA
Performance Date: 4/26/15
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin Chinese

The informant told me about the following custom when I asked her about her family customs regarding food and eating.

“When we’re eating fish in my house, after we finish a big fish, after we finish the top layer, we cannot flip the fish. We have to eat from the side that we placed it on the plate. So my dad tells us the story of back in the day, when the fishermen go out to fish, when they come bring the fish home, they never flip the fish because it would be a symbol of their boat flipping upside down, and he learned that from his dad. So now whenever my mom cooks fish, we are never allowed to flip the fish over; we always have to eat it from the topside, down. So you eat the top, and then you take out the bone, and the long tail, and then you finish the fish like that. Other Chinese families do it [as well] because I think it’s passed down from my grandfather to my dad, and then my dad passes it down to us. So it’s a common thing if you ask a Taiwanese person, do you flip the fish, it would be a commonly known thing that you don’t flip the fish”

In folklore, it is well known that groups of people who interact directly with nature, and things that are out of their control, tend to have superstitions and beliefs regarding their actions. Thus, it’s not uncommon to see a belief or superstition such as the above one in a fishing culture. However, it’s interesting to see that some of these beliefs and superstitions are passed on to the next generations even though it might not even be directly relevant anymore.

Finishing your bowl of rice

Nationality: American
Age: 26
Occupation: Unemployed
Residence: San Diego, CA
Performance Date: 4/26/15
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin Chinese

The informant was asked about some sayings, proverbs, and customs in her family.

Informant: “A lot of families, to get us to finish all the rice on our bowl, they [parents] say that if you don’t finish the rice on your bowl, your spouse is going to have a lot of pimples and blemishes on their face, so every time, they always remind us of that story, like ‘you know how so and so has a lot of pimples? Their spouse must not finish their bowl, so you don’t want to do that. Mom and dad… they’ve been telling us this since we’re young so it’s expected that our bowls are clean. Otherwise the stories will be reminded every time there’s something in the bowl… what I’ve heard from my German friend, when you’re growing up, it’s either your spouse is going to have a lot of pimples, or there’s a lot of starving kids in Africa. But then I met a lot of international students while I was in college, and he actually says that his parents tell him because there’s a lot of starving kids in China. So there’s a lot of different countries there involved. ”

Collector: “Are Asians specifically more afraid of pimples than other people are?”

Informant: “I think that in Chinese culture we definitely do care about our appearance so having your spouse having pimples I guess it’s not really… it can be frowned upon in the community and since Asian cultures are very community centered, you want to look good so you don’t want… it’s always community centered so you need to care for your spouse’s pimples. You know, its not just about your pimples, it’s you know, you’re responsible for somebody else in the community”

A lot of people in the US probably recall being told by their parents when they were young to finish the food on their plate because there are starving kids in Africa who would be extremely appreciative of whatever food was on that plate. Thus, it’s quite interesting to observe an alternative version of essentially the same saying parents use to get their kids to finish their plate of food. There are likely many more variations of this well-known guilt strategy around the world.