Category Archives: Life cycle

Why can’t you trust an atom? Because they make everything up

Minor Genre: Jokes 

Text: Why can’t you trust an atom? Because they make everything up

Context: My informant has a strong relationship with this joke because it applies to the subject matter he is studying. He mentioned that he likes it when humor aligns with his daily life, and as an aerospace engineering major, he finds this joke entertaining. My informant first heard this joke from his ninth-grade physics teacher, who told it to the class. He said that it stuck with him since then and has made a reappearance in his academic career. Because of this, he feels like this joke has accomplished a full circle moment in his life and will continue to be relevant in his future employment. My informant mentioned that he uses this joke when talking to his fellow peers in a science setting. He said humor is a good way to make them laugh or cringe and create an initial friendship. However, when I asked him about it, he said he would use it outside of a science setting if it were around his friends. 

Analysis: In general, jokes fit into a specific cultural setting and make sense to those participating in that culture. For example, in the United States, most jokes like this tend to have a punch line at the end. This is typical of  American jokes, and for people growing up in this culture, it would not make sense to have a punch line at the start of a joke. Additionally, humor is key in social relationships, and as my informant mentioned, he uses this joke in science settings. This is because it is a science-related joke, and if he uses it in a science crowd, he is most likely to gain approval from them and be welcomed into their group. In this case, my informant is an active bearer by telling this joke to others in the engineering department. Still, he could also be a passive bearer by correcting someone if they say the joke incorrectly. 

Oro parece, plata no es, el que no lo adivine, muy bobo es

Minor Genre: Riddle

Text: 

  • Spanish: Oro parece, plata no es, el que no lo adivine, muy bobo es 
  • Transliteration: It looks like gold, it’s not silver; whoever doesn’t guess it is a fool 
  • Free Translation: It looks like gold, but it’s not silver; whoever doesn’t guess it isn’t very clever 

Context: For some context, the riddle’s answer is “plátano” (banana), which can be seen when it says “plata no es.” This riddle only makes sense in Spanish because of the wordplay. With that in mind, my informant mentioned that her relationship with the riddle is very personal. Growing up in Cuba, she ate a lot of bananas during dinner and once she had her children, this is a tradition she continued with them. Because of this, she would always use this riddle when at the dinner table with her children to see if they guessed it correctly. My informant first heard this in Cuba during her childhood. She said it is an extremely common riddle that everyone knows. However, she thinks she picked it up in school with her friends. My informant no longer uses this riddle because she considers riddles to be children’s entertainment, and since her children are grown up, she has nobody to tell them to anymore. She mentioned that when she read her children bedtime stories, this riddle would sometimes come up, reinforcing the idea that it was a children’s genre. 


Analysis: This riddle follows one of the typical characteristics of riddles: it is a play on language. In this case, it is a play on saying “plata no es,” as it’s not silver, and “plátano es” as it’s banana.  It’s also interesting that riddles are not common in the United States because Americans tend to think that language is set in stone, and coincidentally, this riddle is Hispanic. Another thing my informant mentioned that is a characteristic of riddles is the idea that they are a children’s genre, having to do with the idea that when you’re a child, you can still be imaginative with words. Something interesting about this riddle is that it has the word “bobo” at the end, which means dumb or foolish. In other versions of this riddle, they say “tonto” which, although translating to a very similar/almost exact thing, differs in its speakers. This riddle is a potential oicotype that may be more common in some Spanish-speaking countries as opposed to others.

A Long Lost Friend

Nationality: American

Age: 81

Occupation: Retired

Residence: Mill Valley, CA

Performance Date: December 1st, 2024

Primary Language: English

Language: English

MAIN DESCRIPTION: 

“All right, a few years ago, normal morning I just woke up. I was gonna get up and go to to the bathroom. when I felt like I couldn’t get out of the bed. 
I felt like something was like sitting on me right I mean, I could still breathe and all, but I just felt like I couldn’t get up and I was thinking, is this a heart attack or something? And then finally I did get up and I went to the bathroom. I came back, got in bed and there, I felt it again. 
It was just like somebody sitting on me and and when I started with maybe I picked up my phone and looked at the date and it was July 2 and I suddenly remembered that that was the birthday of my best friend Leonore, who had died of breast cancer years before, and I think it was the first time I ever forgot her birthday and I think she was pissed that I forgot it. So after that, I mean after that everything went away and it was just that weird experience of having this presence there who didn’t hurt me, but was making herself known.”

INFORMANT’S OPINION:

JS: What do you think this appearance means spiritually?

MB: “I felt it related to our friendship, which started in sixth grade and we were she was my closest friend through high school and then once I started going with my husband uh and she she she developed an interest in Spanish culture. And she ended up um taking a job in Mexico and marrying a Mexican person there, had children with him and then later divorced him and she got tired of him and Mexico. 
And she came back and met a really wonderful guy who she married and they lived right in the East Bay until she developed breast cancer. She was she died at 49. It was terrible, so anyway, I felt it was just her maybe disappointment and a little annoyance that I had that remembered her birthday. 
But I didn’t feel it was evil. I mean, she wasn’t trying to kill me. Yeah like, “hey, it’s my birthday.””

PERSONAL INTERPRETATION:

Who can say for sure what our human connections to the afterlife or spiritual realm might be? There have been so many examples of people having near death experiences and describing similar sensations of light and hovering. It’s not hard to believe that Lenore paid a visit to MB, if not to just say hello, maybe to nudge MB to not forget her existence or her presence, even if only in spiritual form when she “sat on” her chest on her birthday. 

College Ghosts

Age: 19

Date: 12/3/24

Language: English

Collector’s Name: Lia

Nationality: American

Occupation: Student

Primary Language: English

Residence: United States

Subject: I haven’t personally experienced any ghost stories myself, but there is a story in my dorm about some freshmen with spirits. Would that work?

Interviewer: Definitely. Could you tell me a little about it?

Subject: Sure. Okay, in August of the 90s, three freshman guys were roommates. Two of the guys were trying to join a fraternity, and the last roommate was a little bit different from the other two. Let’s call him Jake. Jake spent a lot of time in his room alone, was not that conversational, and secluded himself from the other roommates. One night, Jake randomly invited the other two roommates to partake in a haunted ritual to connect with spirits. The roommates were excited that Jake might finally begin to open up, so they agreed. 

Interviewer: Wait, so there wasn’t any sort of hesitation from either of the roommates about a haunted ritual they are only just hearing about? 

Subject: No, not at all, really. They are teenage boys who likely felt invincible and thought the whole thing wasn’t real. Jake started telling them about how to perform the ritual, which needed to take place in the haunted dorm room of the college. The three roommates walked over to this room that nobody stays in anymore, and messed with the lock to get in. Jake instructed them on how to begin the ritual, where each person would stand in one corner of the room with their eyes closed, leaving one corner of the room vacant. In increments, all of the boys would switch corners. They repeated this process on Jake’s command until being told to abruptly stop. Jake told them all to slowly open their eyes and shift their heads to the vacant corner. They all did as he instructed, and in the corner was a boy, one that looked just about their age. He was a little bit translucent, and his eyes had been scratched out from their sockets. There was dried blood all over his hands. The most notable thing about him, they say, is just how silent he was. His presence could take noise away from anything around him and leave this empty silence. Until he began to scream. He screamed the loudest any of the boys had ever heard, and all of the roommates covered their ears with their hands. He continued to scream with his piercing, angry voice and then started to walk towards the roommates. Immediately they all ran out of the room, closing it behind them. They returned to their dorm, trying to find somewhere that felt safer. They locked themselves inside of their room and sat down trying to catch their breath. Slowly, one another looked at each other, noticing that each of their eyes had scratches around it, and were slowly starting to swell. 

Interviewer: Did anyone else in the dorm building hear any of this?

Subject: It is a very well-known story, but that night nobody but the three roommates heard anything. Now, people who have a dorm room near the haunted one claim that every once and a while they will hear screams through their wall, but only one room can hear it at a time. Nobody really knows who that boy is, or what his story is. 

Child’s View

Age: 19

Date: 12/2/24

Language: English

Collector’s Name: Lia

Nationality: American

Occupation: Student

Primary Language: English

Residence: The United States

Some people claim to have the ability to sense spirits. Something in their presence is apparent only to particular individuals. This story comes from a girl whose mother had always been taken aback by her daughter who seemed to see things that others couldn’t. 

“Ever since I was young, my mom had told people that I was a bit of a weird kid. I had these tendencies that left my mom feeling pretty on edge. I would sleep, talk and walk a fair amount at night, which is kind of scary in and of itself. I just did a lot of things that put me out of place. I think things can become scary when they are offset from their typical routine, so when you see a four-year-old in the middle of the night walking around and talking to something that doesn’t seem to exist, I would definitely understand why my mom would get kind of freaked out. 

Things became a little more real for my mom when I started to tell her about the things I would see in the house. There wasn’t anything special about our house that I know of. I have never been told that it is haunted or has been built on any historic lands or anything. I was too young to remember any of this, but have been told about this night several times by my mom. It was a weekend, and we stayed up in the living room to watch some TV together. Once it got late enough into the night, my mom picked me up from the couch where I had fallen asleep. My father was away on a work trip, and all of my younger siblings had gone to bed already. I was being carried up the stairs, with my chest to her chest. My mom put me in my room to sleep and then shut the door. She must have waited in the hallway for a couple of minutes or so, doing something on her phone. She tells me that as she was standing in the hallway leaning on the wall, my bedroom door opened, and I stepped outside, facing her in the hallway. She was super confused as to why I had woken up, and why I was standing in the hallway facing her in the middle of the night. With my eyes still closed, I lifted my arm and pointed towards her. I whispered, “Mom, do you see what’s behind you?” My mom was immediately scared, and did not turn around, but picked me up and guided me directly back into my room. She tucked me in, and I went back to bed with no problem. Apparently, this wasn’t the first time I had done this, and it wouldn’t be the last. Each time it happens, the next morning I wake up and can describe exactly who I had seen the night before.”