Indian Women Plant Corn in the Prairie des Femmes

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Summer 2003 Journal Pages

Rabalis Memes

Awesome Louisiana French memes created and submitted by Nathan Rabalais.

It's Saturday night, dear, "shall we" (raccoon) dance?

Preach!

Shut ya mouth you can't speak the good French like me

Me, I know you always gonna listen to the advice of others...

Parrain, I am afraid of monsters. Mais, you don't have to be, dear. You just have to run fast and don't tell them that I am your parrain.

This guy right here farted, yall! Really, I farted.

Chaoui don't like it...

Bruh... I think I just seen a monsta!

Hey fellow, you know what a cayouene is in my parish?

You just simply can't run to Mordor!

Why you dropped the potato!?

I went drop off the kids at the game and not I can run the roads in my suburban and make trouble.

 Born in Eunice, Louisiana, Nathan Rabalais received his B.A. in music from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in 2007 and pursued graduate studies in musicology at the University of Strasbourg. He obtained an M.A. in French at UL Lafayette, specializing in Louisiana language and culture and North American Francophone literature.  Currently, his main research interests include Louisiana French dialects, oral tradition and music of South Louisiana. More recent research topics and projects include popular and community theater among Francophone minorities, adult literacy for native Cajun French speakers and dialect pedagogy. In other words, Nathan Rabbalais is a pretty righteous dude.

Fact: I am faster than 80% of snakes. Rabalais class memes!!

I feel pretty confident in the future of Louisiana French language and humor after seeing these memes des etudiants de Monsieur Rabalais. Merci, y'all!

Fact: I am faster than 80% of snakes.

I know this feeling, me.

I am not a chat-oui (raccoon) I am a chat-non!

I met a guy in Lafayette. He told me You're a pretty doll! (prostitute)

One can not simply pass through the back door.

I am not crazy! Look! I carved your name on my arm!

Let that bouillie custard fall on the floor!

The snap-beans aren't salty.

I will never let you go. (Lache pas la patate Jacques et Rose!)

Many thanks to Nathan Rabalais and his Cajun French students at Tulane in New Orleans for creating and submitting these hilarious memes to the Prairie des Femmes!


 Born in Eunice, Louisiana, Nathan Rabalais received his B.A. in music from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in 2007 and pursued graduate studies in musicology at the University of Strasbourg. He obtained an M.A. in French at UL Lafayette, specializing in Louisiana language and culture and North American Francophone literature.  Currently, his main research interests include Louisiana French dialects, oral tradition and music of South Louisiana. More recent research topics and projects include popular and community theater among Francophone minorities, adult literacy for native Cajun French speakers and dialect pedagogy. In other words, Nathan Rabbalais is a pretty righteous dude.

Traditional Ecards of Coastal Louisiana

Lomax Fellow and friend Dr. Joshua Caffery released his fascinating book, Traditional Music in Coastal Louisiana recently. There were so many amazing songs and one-liners that Dr. Caff includes in this book. Here are a few of my favorites, done in Ecard, Prairie des Femmes fashion. Thank you Dr. Caff!! 

Buy this book:

http://lsupress.org/books/detail/traditional-music-in-coastal-louisiana/

Louisiana French ECards from Traditional Music in Coastal Louisiana by Joshua Caffery

The next morning, after the wedding, the beauty looks at the door. The beautiful girl looks at the door, with a big regret.

I am going to the big woods with my jug of moonshine, brass knuckles in my pocket, cards in my hand, and I am looking for nothin but trouble.

Criminal Criminal! The Cajuns of L'anse la Butte have torn up underpants.

Go away sadness! Go throw yourself in the coulee and go so far, never come back to me again!

The beautifyl girl gave me a beautiful bouquet, all garnished with beautiful white jasmine. It's to heal, heal, heal sadness.

Oh wild nightingale! Oh nightingale of the forest!

Let's drink, dear comrades, Let's abandon amour. Let's abandon girls, we'll court them no more.

Oh, he fell in the road, like an unlucky one.

A bouquet of thoughts, at the four corners of the bed. A bouquet of worry.

He said that he wanted to play until he didn't have any more shoes.

Click here to see a few more memes I did from the book.

CajunNet

THE CAJUNNET

The CajunNet is the information source by which South Louisianians communicate and share all information. It is a familial, wireless, omnipresent, omnipotent and sometimes telepathic communication network used for the transfer of a wide range of information concerning South Louisiana gossip, politics and scandal. It is made up of interconnected networks, like spiderwebs in the Basin, the signal of which is most strong in South Louisiana, but the CajunNet boasts thousands of satellite servers worldwide. The CajunNet is the only entity yet found that exceeds 186,000 miles per second. Not only is it fast, unlike its younger cousin the Internet, information gleaned from the CajunNet is checked and cross-checked by many within the web, so it's usually correct. Also unlike the Internet, the CajunNet is run by grandmas.  Similarly to the Internet, sometimes on the CajunNet, you don't know who you are really talking to, everyone is so connected, you could really get in trouble out there.

I am part of the CajunNet, so are you if you have ever gotten gossip from your Nannie, Ti-Tante, classmate, ya friend's mama or your second cousin once removed about a local event before the Main Stream Media covered it, and it turned out true. CajunNet is hotter than the MSM.

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"Dans la Ville Platte, tu peux pas jongler à quelquechose autrement quelq'un d'autre connait." 

(In Ville Platte, you can't even think something before someone else knows.)  

 

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You sneeze in Evangeline Parish, the people in Saint Landry Parish are already saying "God Bless You."

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Some origins of the CajunNet

The CajunNet is the network by which we are all connected, and it seems that we South Louisianians have kept our connections quite a long time. Our ancestors have lived and intermarried for centuries upon centuries, and in many cases were, in fact, the same people. Our interconnection is the base for the strength, reliability and utility of the CajunNet. In a word, cousins.

After the Grand Derangement of 1755, the Acadians found their way back to each other, and to la Louisiane, by an earlier form of the CajunNet phenomena- letters. After the chaotic deportation that split families and sent them across the globe, the network of letters and family connections were unable to be broken, even by genocide, and indeed were used to pull the scattered Acadians back together in Louisiana. 

Before electricity arrived to the far-flung prairies and swamps of Louisiana, people would go to their neighbor's houses to pass the veille, visit and play music. Here is what Jenee Naquin's grandmother said about the origins of the CajunNet:

Jenee: I once asked her (g-maw) if it was true that they had no electricity. She said yes. I said so how did you get the news, no tv, no radio. Did you get the paper? She said,

Oh no, Cher, we would go visit. That is how we got the news. Passe the veille.

I thought it was so funny that that was their method for news - the original gossip circle!

And a precursor to the modern CajunNet!

The prevalence of small towns where people's orbits are in close proximity contributes to the CajunNet. There isn't much going on, and Cajuns like to talk. No matter if its your uncle telling long lies about hunting or fishing trips, the small town Topix Forums, Facebook confessions pages, or that nosy friend that will follow police cars to the scenes of accidents just to report to the servers of the CajunNet...people like to talk, and be in the know.

And so, next time your mama gives you some hometown gossip about people she identifies by their nickname (You know Hog Jaw?), their lineage (You know, Bee à Tante Lou?) or how they are related to you (You know T-Nonc's Daddy, Mister Earl's, brother? Well, his lil sister! She was married to you friend Monette's brother.) When you hear these things and the juicy tidbits that follow, know that you are not just listening to small town talk, but you are taking part in a communion of the vernacular, you are receiving information about your people, you are part of something bigger than all of us: the CajunNet!

Stay Tuned to the PDF for Stories from the CajunNet...

MORE stories from the Cajun Net:

Click here for the story in which Nananne and the Sheriff's wife's CajunNet secret weapon is a quilt.

Click here for a story about MJ's death and the CN. 

Click here to see how the CajunNet helped catch a killa. 

The CajunNet and the Beatle 

CajunNet in Amsterdam

French Gifts

Gifts from France

Tins of Galettes Le Mont Saint-Michel and La Mère Poulard

Haribo Dragolo Candies 

Two pots of Crème de Caramel au Beurre Salé

Miel de Lavande de Provence and Miel de Tilleuil 

Jet Gum en Chlorophylle Fort, Cassis Fort, Eucalyptus Menthol Fort 

Half a baguette, smashed in my purse

French prayer cards

Three small A l'Olivier olive oils

Côte d'Or Chocolat au Lait for Tante Mand

Livre des Huiles Essentielles Chémotypées

Lavender, dragon, camphor, citronella, tea tree and rosemary oils

Castle and knight sticker and book set

Four sticks of bois de reglisse from the pharmacy 

Plant candies

Numerous homeopathic medicines, L-52, and various powders and tablets that you gotta "laisse fondre sous la langue."

Bellarom Chocolat au Lait et au Lait extra fin éclats de noisettes

Chestnuts and a spiny bogue

Rocks from Charité sur Loire

A square piece of pink marble from a field in Bretagne 

Dried thyme, lemon thyme, dragon, and laurier (never to serve raw!) from Impasse Gerbole and Fred and Stagef 

Miniature Catholic prayer book with prayers in French and Latin

Encre Or, golden ink, in a tiny bottle from the castle at Angers 

A dragon wing from a Breton Happy Meal

Kinder surprise eggs

Three snail shells from the ramparts at la Charité

Rose hips from the town square at Loudun 

A Bretagne rose from Megan Brown 

a handfull of fragrant dried grass from the hillside at Gerbole

Wooden sword and dagger

French chevalier and cheval figurines 

Children's books, Le Petit Breton, Breton music CDS and CDs of French comptines for children from Lisette 

Antique book, Napoleon Intime 

F. Jeantet Chateauneuf-du-Pape 2011(ohh oui, ça se garde...tu peux garder ça dans la cave!) 

book of Breton names

Le Peuple de L'Herbe record

two children's Breton coffeemilk bowls 

La Bamble cup set
one yellow plastic cup from La Bogue d'Or, complete with pants clip for drinking while gesturing, and diagram of the brain's creative centers

An entire Swiss raclette set-up that melts cheese to serve on boiled potatos and stuff, then you eat a bunch of melted cheese on potatos with patte negra jambon on the side and then an obligatoire sieste after that  

Two Laguiole knives traded for a coin on La Toussaint

Blue #2 race car given to the baby by Lisette "fait dans le Jura!"

Paris pillowcase from Viviane

Sacré Cœur dish towel from Viviane

La Louisiane par Example, un Film de Robin Marck et Marie Lafon, pretty awesome!!!

We bought and received all of these gifts, most to give, some to keep, but really, the most valuable gifts I received while in France were the words, expressions and songs... 

A few expressions that people used that piqued my ear:

Merlin l'Enchanteur -Merlin the Wizard

Aire de... A rest area! Ex. Aire de Chante de Perdrix, Aire de Bois de Chinon, Aire de Plaisance...

Blanche sur rouge, rien bouge.

Rouge sur blanche tout fout le camp!
A saying about French red and white wine order. White on red, nothing moves. Red on white, everything's coming out!

Je vous laisse, avec la jeunesse! Lisette upon her leaving the party. I leave you with your youth!

T'as vu la vièrge! You have seen the virgin. You are mistaken, are seeing things, are crazy. (a personal favorite)

T'as une main dans la terre, une main dans le ciel. Something Fred said on Halloween night.

Faire la fricassée de museau. When two people are making out with their big noses all smashed together. It makes a nose fricassée.

Y'a anguille sous roche! There is an eel under the rock. Something's hidden.

Le chien aboye, la caravan passe. -Jean's wisdom. The dog barks, the caravan passes.

La nuit, tous les chats sont gris. Lisette's "at night, all cats are grey."

Il pleut comme une vache qui pisse. Interesting! In Ville Platte we say, "Like a cow pissing on a flat rock."

C'est comme pisser dans le violin. It's like pissing in the violin. That is to say, it's like doing nothing of any use.

Arêtte de chercher midi à quarorze heures. Quit trying to find noon at two pm.

Kerzee- très noir- a Breton for December, this was interesting to me because Mr. J.D. Soileau said that his grandmother called January le mois noir, the black month, because it was so dark.

And the songs...

The second song from Tours, that is a

chanson du répertoire traditionnel de haute Bretagne, that made me cry when I heard it:

C'est à 10 h dans la plaine

où l'herbe est courte et on l'emmène.

Où l'herbe est courte, courte

et on la coupe, coupe

on la feune et on l'emmène...

 

This one, Trois Petits Tambours, was the theme song of the trip. Here it is sung by our group, Plume Farouche and led by the incredible Megan Brown. This was the song that helped calm my boys down when they were homesick and the song that George, Miche, Casey and Morgan sang while tromping down the streets of Paris (right!?) Thank you so much, Megan, for bringing it!



A kid's song that Lisette gave to Julien, which he loves: Jean Petit Qui Danse

Fred and Lisette sang La Famille Tortue one to the boys when they were fussy, and it worked like a charm!

Fred sang me this song La Morvandelle from La Bourgogne:

(not the best version, but you get the idea!)

And finally, a video Fred showed me that it really beautiful and interesting. She called the singer, Camille, "dingue"  which I recognized as a word I grew up saying to describe a silly or aloof girl. She's so dingy, we'd say! In short, I came home from France with many treasures in my hands, but infinitely more in my head and heart.

La Toussaint in France

basically my first gumbo roux

Hearth Chez Lisette et Jean