qui vole un oeuf vole un boeuf – Quebec Proverb

Occupation: Life Coach
Residence: LA
Primary Language: French

French: qui vole un oeuf vole un boeuf

Translation: Whoever steals an egg steals an ox

Meaning: [informant] if a person steals a small thing it is likely that later he will steal a more important thing

Context: Informant is of French Canadian decent, born and raised in Montreal Quebec. She came to the US in her mid-twenties, and Quebecois proverbs are central to her upbringing and something she employs in her career as a life coach. This proverb was casually shared with me over lunch with the informant.

Thoughts: In addition to the informant’s ascribed meaning, I took it to mean that since a small egg can grow into mighty ox, that stealing something small of little value today might be worth something great in the future. For example $10 could have been worth 1 bitcoin way back when; however that same bitcoin now would yield tens of thousands of dollars. So just because a wrongdoing is small, doesn’t mean it won’t have large implications.

Low Country Boil

Age: 31
Occupation: Student
Primary Language: English

I don’t know why they call it a low country boil. Probably because it comes from Lousiana, in the swampland. Anyways, it’s a south eastern thing, and you do it outside traditionally in a big old pot. It is often accompanied by bonfires and lots of alcohol.

My dad fills the pot with water and Old Bay seasoning (very important) and fills it with snow crab legs, crawfish, shrimp, eggs, corn, spicy sausage, and potatoes. And, while it’s cooking everybody is drinking and playing games like cornhole to pass the time. When it’s finally done cooking, we pull the big foldable outdoor table out and line it with newspaper and empty the contents of the drained pot directly on the table. Everyone gathers around, and its basically a free-for-all food grab – usually without plates or utensils – where we talk and grub out.

Pro tip: the best way to eat is crawfish is to take it, twist the tail off and suck on the head, getting all the delicious residual juices of the boil.

Context: [informant] I was raised in Florida and we do this for family, birthdays, or whatever, usually in the summer.

Analysis: Having been to a low country boil I can attest that the informant is spot on with their example. The Old Bay seasoning seems to be a staple in a country boil, and the process can get really messy, but fun. Although the seafood is a central component, I think one of the biggest draws of the boil is the social aspect of being surrounded by friends and family, pigging out without the rules associated with traditional dinners. No body is judging you, food is falling on the floor, but nobody cares… you are just having a good time.

As Smart As Bait

Nationality: American
Age: 50
Occupation: Stay-at-home Mom
Residence: Riverside, CA
Performance Date: 5/3/21

Overview

The informant is 50 years old and from Riverside, California. She describes a saying popular in her fishing-obsessed family: “as smart as bait”. 

Context

As stated, the informant grew up with a father who took her fishing frequently. He was the main perpetrator of this saying, jokingly using it during fishing trips. However, it was also used in regular life, it became adopted by all of her siblings and her mother, and they used it whenever they wanted to call something stupid. According to the informant, “Fishing bait is the least desirable thing to be in the world. Not only does it smell bad, get pierced by a hook, and eaten by a fish, it looks like absolute mush. There is nothing impressive or intellectual about bait, so equating another person’s intellect to that of bait is a major insult. That said, the tone of voice that this phrase is said in is usually very lighthearted and joking, so it doesn’t come across like a major insult, but instead like a light tease.”

Thoughts

I’ve heard a lot of folk sayings that use the form of a simile to insult. “As smart as bait” reminds me of other sayings like “smart like a tractor”, “dumb as a doornail”, etc. What’s interesting to me is that both “as smart as bait” and “dumb as a doornail” mean the same thing, despite one using the word smart and one using the word dumb. Irony goes a long way here, but it’s interesting that an insult is assumed of both.

Eating the Goldfish

Nationality: American
Age: 50
Occupation: Stay-at-home Mom
Residence: RIverside, CA
Performance Date: 5/3/21

Overview

The informant is 50 years old and from Riverside, California. She was in a sorority in college and she describes one initiation ritual that her sorority practiced on new members: asking them to swallow live goldfish. While they didn’t have to complete this act, swallowing the goldfish was widely understood to accelerate their acceptance in the sorority community.

Context

Swallowing goldfish is an urban legend of sorts, whispered about by children and seen in gaudy comedy movies. I asked the informant why she thinks that her sorority embraced this tactic, and she explained that it added interest and excitement to their initiation ritual. It gave new members something to gawk about and to tell stories about, which really helped cement them as members of the sorority. She said that while it was gross and weird, it also served its function.

Thoughts

This reminds me of other outrageous hazing rituals, which are mostly practiced by fraternities these days. Humiliation, toxic consumption of alcohol, physical exhaustion, and downright gross activities are bad, but for the reasons the informant alludes to, also… kind of good? While recent stories regarding hazing put the practice in an overwhelmingly negative light (for which I do not object), they also act as effective initiation rituals. Once you’ve been hazed, you feel like a real member of the greek organization.

You Don’t Know Shit From Shineola

Nationality: American
Age: 50
Occupation: Stay-at-home Mom
Residence: Riverside, CA
Performance Date: 5/3/21

Overview

The informant is 50 years old and from Riverside, California. She describes a saying that her mother, also from Riverside, frequently said: “You don’t know shit from Shineola.” 

Context

Shineola was a popular shoe polish manufactured in the United States in the 1940’s. Thus, it was very well known among American families, like a household brand. To say that someone couldn’t tell the difference between Shineola (a thick brown substance) and shit (also a thick brown substance) would be to question their judgement and intellect. When asked the context that this saying was used in, she replied that “It was always used negatively or condescendingly. Essentially, you were calling someone stupid. This could be a joking insult, or sometimes it was actually used to sound nasty to someone else.”

Thoughts

This phrase is interesting to me in that it is distinctly American by virtue of the brand that it includes. Other sayings call upon more generic objects, like an apple, tree, pencil, etc, but calling out Shineola makes this phrase only understandable to an audience that is aware of Shineola– in essence, an American audience.