Tag Archives: weather

It’s colder than a witch’s tit

Nationality: American
Age: 65
Occupation: Consultant
Residence: Claremont, California
Performance Date: April 2007
Primary Language: English

My source was raised on a farm in Nebraska, and during the winter, snowstorms can be frequent and it can get very cold.  He remembered his father coming inside from running an errand.  After removing his outermost coat and hanging up his hat, my source’s father grinned and used this folk metaphor to describe the temperature.  My source found the comment amusing.  He laughed and then left to find his dad a blanket to warm up with.

Many times, my source has described many hardships of being raised on a farm, mainly the chores.  At one point, it was his responsibility to milk, feed, brush, and take care of the cows.  A cow’s utter is not protected by hair, and under winter conditions can become very cold.  It is important that the utter does not get too cold because the cow’s tits will actually become chapped, and the cow will become sick and stop producing milk.  To prevent this, my source would be sent out and would have to rub a protective balm on each cow’s tits.  My source distinctly remembers how cold they felt.  Now, my source made sure to explain this to me, because if he knew a cow’s tits were freezing, it made him wonder how much colder a witch’s tit would be.  And for it to be colder than a witch’s tit, then it must be seriously cold outside.

My source thinks that the metaphor was developed through similar reasoning.  Also, he mentioned that this metaphor is mostly shared by people who live in colder climates, because he has rarely heard it since he moved to California over thirty years ago.  In my opinion, I believe the metaphor was likely developed by a drunk who stepped out into the cold and decided to exclaim the temperature was colder than two completely unrelated words.  Their friends must have found this hilarious and the metaphor would have caught on and spread by word of mouth.

Mirrors attract storms and should be covered during a storm.

Nationality: Brazilian-American
Performance Date: April 2007

My informant is a native of Brazil and is of Portuguese descent.  According to her, her grandmother, from whom she learned this superstition, was a fervent Catholic and “knew hundreds of saints and their miracles and for every misfortune or mishap there would be some saint to pray to or a superstition to fix it!”  She said superstitions were her grandmother’s specialty.  She recalls of her grandmother: “If it was raining hard with thunder and lightning she would go around the house covering the mirrors: they attract the storm.”
I have never heard any superstition quite like this one, though I have heard others that associate omens with mirrors.  Certainly I have never associated mirror superstitions like this one with Catholicism.  This magic-superstition is probably either taken directly from native lore or is a hybridization of the lore of the Portuguese with that of the native land.

Omen – San Francisco

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Nationality: English
Age: 60
Occupation: Teacher
Residence: Long Beach, California
Performance Date: April 22, 2008
Primary Language: English

It looks like earthquake weather today.

This is a phrase that Charlene’s grandmother used to say to her some mornings when the weather looked a certain way.  Charlene grew up in the city of San Francisco, as did many f her relatives before her, including her grandmother.  In 1906 there was a huge earthquake in San Francisco, which caused a huge fire that destroyed most of the city.  Charlene’s grandmother was living in San Francisco at the time.  She remembered that the weather was very grey and muggy that day.  So, every time the weather was similar, she would say it looks like earthquake weather today.

Charlene said it would scare her because she knew exactly what that meant.  Since Charlene had grown up in San Francisco she knew all about the earthquake, plus she had heard all of the stories that her grandmother had told her.  The phrase relates to two different identities.  The fact that her grandmother would say it and Charlene knew exactly what she was talking about, identified both a residents of San Francisco.  They were both well aware of the history of the earthquake in the city.  The fact that her grandmother was able sense earthquake weather showed identified her as part of the group of people who had lived through the 1906 earthquake.

When Charlene described the weather she said it was very muggy and foggy.  I have spent a lot of time in San Francisco and it is muggy and foggy most days.  But, Charlene said that it was a very specific type of weather that only people like her grandma could recognize.  It seems quite difficult to distinguish between one foggy day and another, but Charlene said that one of the days that her grandmother said, “it looks like earthquake weather today,” there was an earthquake.