Folklore

ONCE EVERY generation or so a person or event becomes so famous, so universally known and talked about, that it crosses the line from history into folklore.This happened to railroad legends Casey Jones and John Henry. It's also happened to Lizzie Borden. Everybody knows Lizzie Borden.At a young age I -- like most of my contemporaries -- became acquainted with Lizzie through a popular children's rhyme which went: Lizzie Borden took an axAnd gave her mother 40 whacks.And when the job was nicely done,She gave her father 41.Later my impression of Lizzie and her ax-wielding indiscretion was deepened by a song called "Lizzie Borden," which the Chad Mitchell Trio recorded during the '60s folk revival.

The American Folklore Society has just smiled on one of Maryland's veteran folklorists, even if news of an award makes for a season of mixed blessings for Elaine Eff. She seems to be taking it all in stride, thinking about the next thing, and the next. Since the 1980s, she's been a champion of Baltimore screen painters, Smith Island cake bakers, crab pickers, muskrat skinners, watermen, crafts makers and mill hands - efforts that have earned her the Botkin Prize, considered the top honor the 121-year-old American Folklore Society gives to folklorists who are not affiliated with a university.

If the show is half as good as its title, "The Prozac in Pandora's Box" should be something to see. Written by Laura Amlie, a student in Towson State University's graduate theater program, this pharmaceutically titled multimedia work opens a three-week run at the Theatre Project on Wednesday.Billed as "a raucous roller coaster ride . . . from ancient mythology to modern folklore, childbirth to Chernobyl and the French Revolution to the Baltimore streets," the original work uses wordplay, movement, masks, puppetry and music to examine "creative survival."

Compas de Nicaragua, a nonprofit organization supporting health and education projects in Nicaragua, will present a Nicaragua folklore dance performance at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 15 at the Meeting House, 5885 Robert Oliver Place, in Oakland Mills Village Center. The multimedia performance includes dances in costume, performed to marimba music. Members of the five-member ensemble are also members of Mujeres en Accion (Women in action), a women's group that lives and works on community projects in a poor settlement in Managua, Nicaragua.

MARYLAND FOLKLORE. By George G. Carey. Tidewater Publishers. 163 pages. $12.95.SMITH ISLAND, CHESAPEAKE BAY. By Frances W. Dize. Tidewater Publishers. Photos by M.E. Warren, A. Aubrey Bodine and others. 214 pages. $22.95.GEORGE G. Carey was once the official state folklorist of Maryland, and Frances W. Dize lived for a long time with her husband on Smith Island, but neither the state's folksy lore nor Smith Island's water-bound history -- the subjects of their books -- was quite enough to keep either author in permanent residence here.

He was very tall and lanky and spit tobacco juice. A real pro baseball player. And he could swing the bat. Every season, his average was up over .300.But he was a career bush leaguer. Big as he was, most of his hits were singles and doubles. And a painfully slow outfielder must slam home runs to make it to the bigs.He had been there for a few games. It was called a cup of coffee. Just enough to savor the taste.But it was back to the minors, the bus rides with the kids, the has-beens, and the never-will-be's.

An elderly man, he spoke firmly and precisely. "I'm calling to give you a story about a very shocking and dangerous situation that is being covered up by school officials in Hoffman Estates."And what is this dangerous situation?"A volunteer blood drive was held at the Conant High School. It was for senior students only. Blood was given by 317 seniors. The blood has since been tested, and 61 tested positive for the HIV virus."If true, that is indeed shocking. Are you on the school faculty?

No, chihuahuas don't cure asthma, there's no coke in Coke, and sneezing is not -- we repeat, not -- an effective means of birth control.But bees do tend to sting sweet (well, sweet-smelling) people, carrots are good for the eyes and cranberry juice can help prevent bladder infections.These are just a few of the nuggets of medical folklore in the new dictionary-style book "Feed a Cold, Starve a Fever" by Carol Ann Rinzler (Facts on File, $21.95).Rinzler has collected medical myths for 17 years.

Christmas Eve, and twelve of the clock."Now they are all on their knees,"An elder said as we sat in a flockBy the embers in hearthside ease."The Oxen," by Thomas HardyHorses get a few crunchy apples and carrots. The cattle get extra straw for their bedding. And the leafiest, greenest bales of hay are often set aside for Christmas Eve.Whether they've heard the old legend about animals praying or talking at midnight on Christmas Eve, those who make their living with these beasts find they can't resist doing some extra-special things for them on that night.

ST. CROIX RIVER, Maine -- Stephen Cobb has one eye on the sky as he leans forward in his canoe and dips his paddle into the warm currents that twist deep into this state's vast wilderness.As a bald eagle glides by and loons call in the distance, this 50-year-old river guide is worrying about the onset of a summer storm."That's called a sun dog," he says, pointing to the ring of haze around the late afternoon sun. "That means there's moisture in the upper atmosphere, and we can expect some rain tomorrow."

Howard County: Endorsement Robey announces support for O'Malley Howard County Executive James N. Robey announced yesterday at a Columbia news conference that he is endorsing Mayor Martin O'Malley for governor. Robey, a Democrat, has been the leader of Howard since 1998 and served as the county's police chief for seven years before his election as county executive. "Martin O'Malley will be a governor who puts the interests of Howard County families ahead of those of the special interests," Robey said, according to a campaign statement.

It's yellowjacket season. With their numbers rising and normal foods in short supply, the brassy bugs are crashing our picnics. They compete for our soda, beer, meat and ice cream, and they can deliver painful stings to the unwary. Sometimes they trigger severe allergic reactions. Scientists who study those reactions - by prodding the insects to sting volunteers - say they have encountered a lot of folklore about yellowjacket stings. And much of it turns out to be flat wrong. For example, many people insist that a yellowjacket's venom gets stronger as summer turns to fall.

Penguin Press announced this week that it will pay $8.5 million for the memoirs of former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan. During 18 years at the Fed, until his retirement in January, Mr. Greenspan captivated Washington and the world with his pronouncements about the economy, delivered in a style that came to be known as "oracular obscurity." But experts say it is not clear how well the oracular-obscurist style will adapt itself to the genre of autobiography. The book is due to be published in September 2007.

Double, double, toil and trouble! Fire burn and caldron bubble! There's nothing like the familiar words of William Shakespeare to get us in the Halloween spirit. But ever wonder why Shakespeare decided to add a dash of eye of newt and toe of frog, wool of bat and tongue of dog in the caldron? Obviously not to entice his guests to chow down. So why conjure up such a delightful mixture? Superstition, of course. Superstitions and food have gone hand in hand for ages. Barry Swanson, a food historian at Washington State University, says that not only was garlic used in the past "to keep the werewolves away," but also to "exorcise worms and other ghastly things from the body."

Thursdays at the BMA Celebrate the first Thursday of April at the Baltimore Museum of Art's "Free First Thursday" event today. Enjoy free admission to the museum, tours, family-friendly activities, live music and more. The event kicks off at 11 a.m. with a talk on how to get inspired by landscape paintings and create your own work-of-art garden. Other events include tours of the exhibit SlideShow with a BMA docent, live music by the Jezic Ensemble, a textile make-and-take art workshop and a talk on the Cone sisters and their lace collection.

Akira Yoshizawa, a master paper folder widely acclaimed as the father of modern origami, died March 14, his 94th birthday, at a hospital near his home in Ogikubo, a suburb of Tokyo. The cause was complications of pneumonia Internationally recognized since the 1950s, he was credited with elevating a children's pastime into a serious form of figurative art. He was known both for his innovative folding techniques and for devising a notation system that made origami instructions universally accessible.

Folklorist Simon Carmel knows all of the popular jokes in the deaf community. For instance, there's the one about the woodsman who decides to cut down three trees. He cuts down the first tree, calls 'Timber!' and the tree falls with a mighty crash.He cuts down the second tree, calls 'Timber!' and the tree falls with a mighty crash. He cuts down the third tree, and calls 'Timber!'-- but nothing happens.Alarmed, the woodsman calls a tree surgeon who examines the tree and tells him it is deaf.

"The Penguin Dictionary of American Folklore: Arts and Crafts, Ballads and Beliefs, Real and Imaginary Heroes," by Alan Axelrod and Harry Oster (Penguin Reference, 527 pages, $45). Was Casey Jones real and did he die braking a train? (Yes.) Did 6-year-old George Washington cut down that cherry tree?(No, and even the infamously imaginative fifth edition of Mason Locke Weems' biography only suggests he damaged it.) Heavy on music, dance, Wild West and African-American entries, this book is a trivia-addict's delight, with much in the way of "suggested reading" to aid the seriously curious.

Bryce Manubay wore a toga and carried a tinfoil trident. Against a painted backdrop of Mount Olympus, the sixth-grader put his creative touch on the role the Greek god Poseidon might have played in the origin of hurricanes, thunderstorms and floods. Because Poseidon didn't like it when people dumped trash into his ocean, Bryce said, "he put a curse on the sea, such that when he commanded it, the water would churn, the skies would darken and Zeus would go crazy with thunderbolts, summoning a storm."

The Strange Case of the Walking Corpse: A Chronicle of Medical Mysteries, Curious Remedies, and Bizarre but True Healing Folklore, by Nancy Butcher. Avery. 200 pages. $13.95. Butcher, an experienced medical writer, has plodded and poked through hundreds of medical texts, arcane encyclopedias, journal articles, Web sites, government publications and historic curiosities to pull together this enchanting -- if often disturbing -- cornucopia of weird physiological phenomena. Yes, there is a recorded syndrome called "walking corpse" -- also designated as Cotard Syndrome, delusional nihilism and other quaint manners of describing the affliction that leaves sufferers convinced that they are, in fact, dead.