The Vine: March 29, 2005
Dear Sars,
After an exhaustive internet search, my friend and I have been unable to find the origin of the saying “Jinx! Buy me a Coke.”
Any ideas?
Sincerely,
Phrase origination challenged
Dear POC,
I can list a number of its variations for you — “pinch, poke, buy me a Coke,” or “you owe me a Coke” — but I’m not sure of its origin.
I did find a “jinx map” that compares states where a Coke is owed vs. states where you can’t speak until someone says your full name (that’s what I grew up with; I didn’t hear the Coke thing until college), but that isn’t quite what you asked…here’s another, more academic jinx tracker, but again, nothing on its origin, although it does mention that the Coke aspect is a gentler, more “cooperative” way of calling a jinx that doesn’t force the jinxee to stay silent.
I’ve also heard this referred to as a goocher (viz. Stand By Me, although that was in reference to a coin toss) and a brain wave. Metcalf’s How We Talk doesn’t mention “jinx,” and the Barnhart is not all that helpful either (the noun derives from the Latin iynx, a bird known in English as the wryneck often used in witchcraft, and the verb derives from the noun).
Short answer: Dunno, sorry.
Hey Sars,
Love the site and especially love The Vine. I don’t exactly have a burning question, but more of a “why?”-type issue. You went to college. Do you remember the required courses you had to take? I’m a freshman in college and I’m struggling with understanding the concept of requirements here. I was under the impression that high school pretty much existed to give you a well-rounded knowledge base in the basics, like math, the sciences, and English. So why do I have to retake all of these courses here?
I was told that I could eschew a few of the requirements if I tested out of them with AP exams in high school, but as I was both poor (those tests ran about $80 apiece) and uninformed (I took the honors courses thinking this was good enough for college, thanks guidance counselor), I didn’t take the exams. As a result, I am stuck taking courses like English composition and Intro to Bio. I am also told that I need Bio for my major (psychology), which is understandable, but I swear that I took this exact course in tenth grade.
I’m here at a small, private college, Sars, just where I thought I wanted to be after wasting away in huge public school hell for four years. I love the people here, my friends are great, my boyfriend is in the same state, and everything is peachy except for these requirements. I was inspired to write this during a bit of a hysterical fit while trying to decipher a poem by John Keats. I really don’t think I should have to pay for courses I don’t want. I understand having to wait and pay my dues to get into the courses I really want (like the specific psych courses and my personal favorite, mythology), but I don’t understand the requirements. Maybe they don’t think that I’m smart enough to know how to write without using a comma splice? Or maybe I’ve never heard of mitosis? I don’t know, maybe I’m confused over nothing. It’s just that if I wanted to analyze poetry, I’d have been an English major. Anyway, I was just wondering what your take on all this was. You seem to give the kind of advice that I respond to best, so if you tell me to shut up and take it, I’ll understand.
Confused in Collegeville (no, really, that’s where I am)
Dear CiC,
Yeah…you’ll need to shut up.
I feel your pain, but this is how it is freshman year. Part of the point of the intro classes and the distribution requirements is to make sure that everybody gets the same basic breadth of liberal-arts education, and that everybody going into the upper-level classes has the same training. I had two English AP 5s, two Latin AP 5s, and writing awards from the state. Princeton was like, “That’s nice. You’re a freshman; therefore, you have to take freshman comp survey. Next!”
And I wound up teaching my precept a couple of times because I could diagram a sentence, but a lot of the other incoming freshmen were a disaster from a composition standpoint. I’d gotten drilled on it starting at age eleven; some of my classmates couldn’t identify a verb.
Meanwhile, in physics lab, I’m flailing, because yeah, it’s Physics for Poets, but I haven’t gone near a science course in two years, because my high school let me take a flier and pick up an extra language. I don’t know how to write a lab report; I think a lab is a dog. My lab partner drug my ass up to a B and dropped me there, and God bless her or I’d still be trying to finish my Area IV requirement.
The point is that everyone comes into college with different strengths, and they make you take a cross-section of courses that sometimes seem pointless and annoying so that they can say they’ve set a minimum standard for all undergrads, and that everyone graduating with a Your University degree has minimum mastery in at least these three or four basic areas. Yes, you’re paying to study things that interest you, but from the university’s perspective, you’re also paying to get a solid grounding in all the basics that a university education has to offer. I still can’t sort out (or even remember) the equations for force or velocity, but I can solder like you wouldn’t believe, and if they hadn’t made me take survey science, I wouldn’t have that.
Half the English majors don’t want to analyze poetry either. I was an English major and I had that exact meltdown over Keats. They’re trying to give you a basic skill set. If you’re that advanced, view it as an opportunity to rack up a few easy 4.0s and spend the extra time reading unassigned books.
Hey Sars. I really dig your work. You’ve inspired me to try and be funny. It’s slow going, but I’m hopeful.
My problem is relatively minor. There’s no boyfriend, no cat, no “my roommate’s a heinous bitch — how do I say so without her going all Whitney Houston on my ass?” I’m in my third year of university, and during this time I’ve come to accept that the “Liberal? The hell’s that?” population here isn’t really my scene (I’d transfer, but I’m graduating in the next year, and if I go somewhere else, I’d have at least two more years tacked on, which I’m not really into). I’m not anti-social or anything — I’ll hold down a conversation with anyone who’s not a jackass (and some people who are).
But, as it stands now, on most weekends I find myself alone in my room reading or watching a movie. I’m not depressed about this or anything — I mean sure, it’s not exactly making me deliriously happy, but I’m also not sulking all “I have no friends,” because I do, and they’re fine. I’m generally all right with the situation, but from time to time I find myself wondering if I should put aside my annoyance and find some people to hang out with, just to say I did something.
I’ve done the whole “hang out with irritating people because they’re over 21 and hey, free alcohol!” thing, so it’s not as though I haven’t had my fair share of crazy times. But I don’t know if I want to expend the energy it takes to put up with drunken antics of idiots just so I can say I made my best friends in college when we held each other’s hair out of the toilet. At the same time, I don’t want to look back when I’m older and think I wasted some pretty good years simply because I’m an irritable bitch.
So what do you think, Sars? Should I throw myself out there just so I have something going on, or should I stick to the path of least annoyance?
Signed,
I’m a girl, not yet a hermit
Dear Herm,
Okay…do you have friends or don’t you? Because you say you do, but then you’re talking about finding people to hang out with, and I’m not sure what you’re asking me. Whether it’s okay not to want to get puking drunk every weekend? Whether you’re better off reading a book if that’s what you want to do?
It is, and you are, but you seem to hold a lot of your fellow students in contempt, and to not get that it’s possible just to hang out and have a few beers with people and play cards — I don’t know what you expect to get out of the situation when you put out this vibe of wanting nothing to do with it. I mean, I feel you on the drunken antics of idiots, but I was one of those idiots, and it’s not a bad time.
I think you want to make more friends, or closer friends. If that’s what you want, you have to act like that’s what you want; right now, your attitude is that your fellow students are a waste of your time. Which may be true, but you can’t have it both ways.
Dear Sars,
First of all, I love your site, and your advice. You seem like the
best person to ask about my dilemma. Objective advice is sorely
needed.
A bit of background: I volunteer at the local Planned Parenthood. At
my training, they drilled into us the importance of confidentiality,
and for good reason. They practically made us sign our agreements in
blood. However, I’ve recently encountered a situation that I’m not
entirely sure how to deal with. We do HIV and STD testing at this
particular clinic, and while I’ve seen the occasional familiar name on
a chart, it’s never been a big deal.
Enter “Ben.” I happen to know that Ben had a brief thing with one of
my good friends, “Lauren.” I know, from what Lauren has told me, that
they had unprotected sex “a couple of times.” Ben came in for testing
a few weeks ago, and has tested positive for HIV.
Sars, I’m at a loss. I know that I have to keep my confidentiality
agreement, but I’m really worried about Lauren. Should I just butt out
and mind my own business? Is there any way to convey to Lauren that
perhaps she should get tested without sending off alarm bells in her
head about Ben? Is there some option I’m not seeing? Please help.
Signed,
I Don’t Even LIKE Lifetime Movies, And Now I’m In One
Dear Woman In The Middle, Starring Nancy McKeon,
You signed a confidentiality agreement. It is inappropriate and illegal for you to tell Lauren anything. Furthermore, Lauren is an adult, and if she’s old enough to have sex, she’s old enough to get tested for the whole gamut of STDs every year like the rest of us.
I know it’s a potentially life-or-death issue, and I know that you can’t unknow what you know about Ben, but at the end of the day, you can’t make Lauren watch her cholesterol or drive the speed limit, either. I think your only recourse is to evangelize to all your friends about the importance of practicing safe sex and getting tested regularly, because that’s good advice anyway and it won’t seem like you’re aiming it specifically at her.
Beyond that: no. You’re a good friend to be concerned, but this is for Lauren and Ben to deal with, not you.
Sars:
I somehow expect that you’ll be getting a lot of email over this, but
here goes anyway. Here’s my problem: the Fametracker forums have closed.
This may not seem like a big problem, but there were maybe four parts
to my online routine: FT and its forums, Go Fug Yourself, TN on Vine
days, and MUA (Makeup Alley) every day. The FT forums easily take up
the most of my time.
I’m very sad about FT closing, but I’m sure I’ll get over it; my only
question is, what websites are even half as good as FT in terms of
snark, grammar, and organization? I have absolutely no idea what I’m
going to do with my time online now that FT is gone.
By the way, if TN ever closes, I will just die. Just die.
Yours,
Already in withdrawal, pretty much, only slightly less glamorous
Dear Don’t Die,
Damn Hell Ass Kings has a whole plethora of well-written, well-edited sites, but as far as forums go, that’s harder to find. You could check out the relocated publishing section of the FT forums, here; you could head over to the Chicklit forums; Threeway Action has a whole stew of discussion topics on the stove, and so do the cool kids at MATH+1 and The Usual Suspects; you could start your own forum, if you wanted to.
Good luck!
Tags: etiquette friendships popcult rando
