Tag Archives: Maryland

How the Chipmunk Got Its Stripes

Text: A chipmunk and a bear once had an argument. The bear was bragging that he was the strongest animal in the forest, and that he was so powerful he could stop the sun from rising. The chipmunk didn’t believe him. The bear stayed up all night telling the sun not to rise, but the sun came up anyway, as it always does. The chipmunk laughed and mocked the bear. The bear got angry and chased the chipmunk. The chipmunk dove into a hole at the base of a tree, but the bear caught its back with his claws just as it disappeared, leaving five long scratches. That is why all chipmunks have stripes today. 

Context: EL is a 22-year-old USC student originally from Maryland. She could not identify the specific source she had heard the tale from, only that it was encountered somewhere in childhood, as it took some effort to recall the entire story. 

Analysis: This is a classic tale whose function is to explain a natural phenomenon, in this case the chipmunk’s striping. The bear-and-chipmunk version is the most broadly disseminated version in American children’s literature. The tale’s structure is highly stable: large boastful animal versus small clever animal, the boast humiliated, the chase, the claw-marked stripes. The folkloric interest is in how a tale rooted in Indigenous oral tradition has been absorbed into a generic American children’s literature canon, where it now circulates among non-Indigenous children largely without sense of its origin. 

FOGO

Nationality: American

Occupation: Student

Residence: Los Angeles, CA

Text: FOGO

Context: The informant’s family has played lacrosse for generations, and eventually heard the position of face off specialists being referred to as the FOGO (pronounced foe go). FOGO stands for face off get off, referring to how the faceoff specialist does the faceoff and then immediately subs themselves out of the game. Coaches and referees never would refer to the position as a FOGO, only other players would use the term.

Analysis: The name FOGO is used by lacrosse players to tease their face off specialist teammates. Face off specialists are generally the worst on a team at the fundamental skills required for lacrosse, such as passing, shooting, and defending. During a practice, face off specialists are usually off to the side doing their own drills away from the team, furthering the idea that they lack the skills of “real” lacrosse players. With lacrosse being a very physically demanding sport, the limited role of the face off is seen as making the position easy, which leads to other players teasing the position by calling it the FOGO.

Common DMV Slang: Sice

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: student
Residence: MD
Performance Date: 04/27/20
Primary Language: English
Language: Arabic

K: Every time you can tell someone is just straight-up lying or exaggerating over a situation, they’re sicing it. Sice is just slang for excited or exaggerated. It’s almost like lying but not quite. They’re just making a bigger deal out of what’s really going on. So whenever I hear someone just being overly dramatic, I tell them to stop sicing it up.

DMV= DC, Maryland, Virginia

For the DMV area, this is a very popular slang term. According to the context given by K, it’s safe to say that the culture associated with this region definitely has strong feelings towards dramatic actions. This isn’t something that is at all tolerated which says a lot about how important full honesty is for this group. It’s a good thing to speak your truth but save yourself the embarrassment of being called out for any obvious embellishments.