Category Archives: Folk speech

” Throwing Cheddar ” – Baseball Jargon

Nationality: American- Irish Descent
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Pacific Palisades, CA
Performance Date: 3-25-16
Primary Language: English

Informant: Matthew Henry McGeagh is my 19 year-old  twin brother. He was born and raised in Pacific Palisades, California. His family history comes from Irish, Catholic, Jewish, German, and Swedish roots; with an emphasis on the Irish culture. He attended Catholic school from kindergarten until 12th grade and was raised Catholic by his family as well. He played many sports growing up and is very athletic. He now plays baseball at the University of Pennsylvania.

Matt said, ” If a pitcher is throwing really fast, then we say that the pitcher is throwing ‘Cheddar’ or that he is throwing ‘Gas’.”

My brother told me that “Cheddar” has come from from a long line of random verbal lore in the baseball community. Originally if a pitcher threw the baseball fast, people would say that he is “throwing hard.” That came from the idea that it is hard to hit a fast pitch. At some point in the creation of baseball’s array of sayings and word replacements, an announcer said that a particularly hard-throwing pitcher was “throwing the good cheese.” Where that came from is unknown, but it stuck and players would be caught saying “Man this guys is throwing cheese today,” and using it whenever it deemed appropriate. My brother said that when he entered high school was when he heard the adaptation of throwing cheese. This adaptation was “Throwing Cheddar” or “Tossing Ched,” simply using a specific type of cheese as a substitute. My brother said this one really stuck, and is one of the only terms that he or his teammates using to describe a really good fastball.

This type of baseball jargon allows for players and dedicated fans to separate themselves from those who only kind of know the sport, or from those who don’t at all. Most people would know what a fastball is just by the terms of the within the word, but very few would understand what “throwing cheddar” meant. This adds a little exclusivity to the game and those who really care and are involved in it.

  • To see use of this particular speech, see bleow.
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfLZIAgbE0I  (:55- 1:05)

Phi Alpha

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Rohnert Park, CA
Performance Date: March 20, 2016
Primary Language: English

The informant, a 22-year-old college student, is a member of a PanHellenic sorority. The informant is my sister, and while chatting at home over spring break I asked her if she would be willing to tell me any of the rituals that were performed at her sorority events. She refused to tell on the grounds that they are all highly confidential and she has been sworn to secrecy. After a moment of silence, she said that she would be willing to describe a secret tradition of her ex-boyfriend’s fraternity, because she felt no obligation to keep it secret for him any longer.

“He’s in SAE, and they have this saying that all of the brothers constantly use in secret. It’s ‘Phi Alpha,’ and it means ‘Brighter from Obscurity.’ Usually they just say it means ‘Under the Sun’ because that’s easier to understand. It has something to do with being close to God. Members of the fraternity say it to one another under their breath as a greeting or when saying goodbye. Sometimes they also say it in place of ‘I’m serious’ or ‘this is actually true.’ Like, if one guy is telling a story and his brothers don’t believe him, he’ll say ‘Phi alpha’ so that they do. Only brothers are supposed to know what it is, I was just around so much that they accidentally said it in front of me and [my ex-boyfriend] told me what it means.”

This Greek phrase intended to be shared among fraternity members in secret serves to place emphasis on the deep-rooted connection that is meant to be formed between two men as a result of their shared Greek affiliation. I asked the informant whether pledges—new members of the fraternity who had not yet been initiated—knew of the phrase and she said that they don’t. Therefore, acquiring knowledge of what the phrase is, when to use it, and what it means is a part of one’s initiation into the fraternity. It is a special privilege granted only to those who have endured several months of probationary membership, and serves as a way of asserting one’s status within the fraternity. I asked the informant what the significance of being close to God is for the members, and she replied that there really was none. The fraternity has no religious affiliation, but rather the idea of being close to God serves more as a way of encouraging members of the fraternity to take responsibility for their actions, by implying that some greater power is watching over them and ensuring that they represent the fraternity appropriately. I have always heard that a plethora of secret handshakes, rituals, and traditions exist within Greek organizations, and the depth of meaning associated with the simple saying “Phi Alpha” makes me wonder just how intricate many of these other forms of folklore are that I am unaware of.

Bath Song and Family History

Nationality: American - (Greek Cypriot, German, Argentinian)
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: Friday April 22nd, 2016
Primary Language: English
Language: Greek, Mandarin

A is an 18-year-old woman. She is currently studying Biomedical Engineering at the University of Southern California. She considers her nationality to be American, but more specifically she is one quarter Greek Cypriote, one quarter German and half Argentinian. that being said, she strongly identifies with her Greek roots. She is fluent in both English and Greek, and is currently learning Mandarin.

A: Um, I don’t know if this is a me parable or family parable but I really hated taking baths when I was little, so they used to sing a song about a little kid who wouldn’t take baths and would turn into a pig. Cause she was so dirty. But I think its real because it actually has a tune, like I don’t think my Grandmother actually made up a song, but the song is like “I’m a little piggy, cause I stink a lot,” basically in Greek. And it goes like “well you’ll turn into a piggy too unless you take a bath.”

Me: Aww

A: So yeah, I was afraid I was gonna turn into a barnyard animal. It was fun.

Me: But you took the bath!

A: This is true.

Me: Did they sing this to your siblings? Do you have other siblings?

A: I don’t, I’m an only child. And this was with my grandparents too, and I’m the only grandchild as well.

Me: Aw. But you’ll probably do it with your kids too.

A: Oh yeah. It was so much fun. It’s got it’s own song! My grandfather told me a lot of stories about donkeys, I don’t remember exactly what they contain, but every story that had a moral always involved a donkey. Like a donkey on an adventure.

Me: Your grandparents liked farmyard animals is basically…

A: You know what, my grandparents grew up in the village with farmyard animals, so I’m sure this is how their parents told it to them.

Me: So the songs and the stories are like based on that?

A: Oh yeah. And it’s definitely based on the old village, which is like way the heck up in the mountains, like I’ve been there.

Me: Is there a name for it?

A: Yes, Ayiosgiannis. So my last name is the name of the village, just shortened. The name of the village is St. John’s in English. Um, Ayios is St. in English and that’s where Ayiotis, my last name is from.

Me: Ohhhh

A: So the last names were very frequently based on the area where you are from or like what you were called in the village. So I’m pretty sure my great-grandfather made up that name.

Me: So that’s generally where Greek last names come from?

A: I believe so. A lot of them, like a couple of them, are professions, but a lot of the ones are places.

Me: So places and professions but mostly places?

A: Actually let me rephrase. If you got out of the village then it’s a place cause you wanted to honor your village, but for people in the village, why would they all have the same last name as the village?

Me: True.

A: So it was in the village it was by profession or by nickname or sometimes you will genuinely find people name “Andreas Andreou” like “Phillip Phillipou,” like people with the same last name as their first name, and it’s very funny. Um they’ll do like men’s first names as well as last names cause that was your dad’s dad. So basically common ways to distingush between people with the same name in a village.

Me: So your last name, does it change?

A: It can. We didn’t have last names until the British came and were like “why the heck do you not have last names?” And that was in the 30s, um the 20s. Yeah, Cyprus was a British colony up until the 60’s.

Me: Wow.

A:  Um that’s when they gained their independence.

Me: You didn’t have last names until the 20’s?

A: Yeah, why would we need it? We’re farmers, we’re farming.

Me: That’s true.

A: I remember my grandfather was born in like 1934 and he told me he saw a car in his village once when he was like nine years old and that was probably the only car on the island of Cyprus, driving through all the villages like “oh my god I bought a car!” So it was very…

Me: Secluded?

A: Yeah. And it’s still very farm-heavy. Its still agricultural.

Me: Is Cyprus an island off of Greece?

A: It’s an island actually closer to Lebanon than it is to Greece. It’s north of Egypt and south of Turkey in the Mediterranean Ocean, but since that area used to all be ethnically Greek in the Greek, Egyptian, and Ottoman Empire and since Cyprus is an island it saw less change over time as more people moved in and out because it’s harder to conquer an island. So the people who are Greek there, like our dialect of Greek is more similar to ancient Greek.

A talks about a song that her grandparents used to sing to her when she was little to get her to take a bath. This is a fond memory that she has and she said that it works, the song was effective in making her believe that if she were not to take a bath, she would turn into a pig. A also explains that the song might have to do with her grandfather’s origins, which are especially important to her as the root of her last name is the name of the village. Her grandfather lived in a very agricultural, farm-heavy village, and this is likely where the song originated. The dirt being the result of farming all day, and turning into a pig being the result of not cleaning yourself, so turning into one of your farm animals. The name, the village, and the song are all connected in one way or another.

“Spit the Bit” & “Faunching at the Bit”

Nationality: American
Age: 58
Occupation: Manager
Residence: Tulsa, OK
Performance Date: March 13th, 2016
Primary Language: English

The informant is my father, John Michael Rayburn, born in 1957 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He spent his childhood in Dell City, a suburb to Oklahoma City, before graduating from the University of Oklahoma with a degree in business. His parents are both from Arkansas.

In this piece, my dad discusses two folk metaphors: “spit the bit” and “faunching at the bit”, which is used to describe eagerness in people. I conducted this interview during dinner alone with him.

Dad: One of the things I remembered was this… I guess you could call it a phrase. You can use those right?

Me: Yeah.

Dad: Okay… it was when we were riding horses, you would put a bridle on the horse’s head, and a bridle was this… headgear harness type thing that was used to control the horse. It had a bunch of buckled straps, and it would connect a bit and the reins. It helped control the horse, ‘cause you could just pull on the reins and that would pull on the bit, which was this metal rod that goes in the horse’s mouth, and so when you pulled on the reins it pulled on the bit and you could pull it back to slow the horse.

Me: Okay.

Dad: There were two terms we’d use to describe people that relates to that bit. One of them was where we’d say “faunching at the bit”. Faunching means something along the lines of display angry excitement.

Me: Did you look that up?

Dad: No, that was all me. When the horse would be acting excited or wanting to run, we’d say that horse is “faunching at the bit”. My parents, whenever me or Cathy [sister] would be acting rowdy about going to the grocery store or whatever, you would hear my dad yelling at my mom asking “what are those kids doin’,” and she’d yell back “They’re faunching at the bit,” because we were so excited to get going.

Me: That’s very Arkansas of you.

Dad: I know. I know.

Me: What’s the other phrase?

Dad: It’s about the same thing. There was another term called “spit the bit,” and it’d be when the horse would somehow work the bit out of its mouth, which meant the rider had no control. So the horse would just be bookin’ it, and eventually the rider would just fall off and crash into the dirt. What made me remember this was at work the other day we were discussing a company that stopped doing business with our company, and I, with my Arkansas vocabulary, described the customer as having “spit the bit”.

This is a very “Mike Rayburn” thing to say. My dad, being from a small town in Oklahoma and having grown up with two parents from Arkansas, always says these little phrases. I think they’re good little metaphors in a way, because comparing rambunctious kids or large companies as horses is very descriptive of their behavior. I think he also likes saying these metaphors because he’s proud of where he comes from. It’s somewhat routine to be a little embarrassed when you say you’re from a small town in Oklahoma: there’s a kind of stigma that comes when you admit that. I think my dad likes that though. He must think it’s charming in a way. That’s how a lot of his family is. They like that rural part of their life, and like using metaphors and phrases that remind themselves and others of where they’ve come from.

“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.