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Secret Mudcat Handshake
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Subject: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: Peter T. Date: 27 Apr 99 - 10:25 AM Actually I want a Mudcat decoder ring, but upon recently meeting Rick Fielding we were stymied to figure out what the secret Mudcat greeting was. The "Mudcatters vs. Mudcatteers" thread is gainfully employed elsewhere. What should the secret Mudcat grip, sign, or whatever be? How, in the absence of the telltale T-shirt, or other telltale signs (lack of shoes, bleary eyes, tendinitis, inadequate pension plan) can two Mudcatters greet each other upon first acquaintance? Or is there already one known only to a select few (come on, get a grip)? Yours in secret greeting, Peter T.
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: The_one_and_only_Dai Date: 27 Apr 99 - 10:56 AM Yes, come on brothers, I'm sure we can square this up, and level Yours craftily, The Grand Poo-Bah of Solomon's Outside Lavatory |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: Chief Pooh-Bah Date: 27 Apr 99 - 10:58 AM I cannot reveal but hint: think fins not ears! |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: The_one_and_only_Dai Date: 27 Apr 99 - 11:00 AM Is that a spooky coincidence, or will it be gavels at twenty paces? |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: Margo Date: 27 Apr 99 - 11:21 AM "Muddy buddy!" or "Mud in your eye!" |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: Bert Date: 27 Apr 99 - 11:58 AM I used to know a guy who had a handshake like a dead fish but he wasn't a Mudcateer. Bert. |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: Steve Parkes Date: 27 Apr 99 - 12:26 PM Musicians only: it doesn't matter how you shake, as long as you're wearing picks. Maybe banjo players could adopt a frailing motion? |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: Rick Fielding Date: 27 Apr 99 - 12:27 PM Ok, I've got a suggestion Peter. Every Mudcatter buys a fingerpick (whether they play a stringed instrument or not) and everytime you shake hands with someone, make sure the pick is on your index finger. You may not meet too many "catters" but oh boy, everyone you meet will know you belong to a secret society. Men will be impressed..women will swoon. If your a female mudcatter, women will be impressed and men will swoon! On the other hand they just might think your the village idiot!..but musicians are used to that. |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: katlaughing Date: 27 Apr 99 - 12:33 PM Strum, again? |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: Joe Offer Date: 27 Apr 99 - 12:41 PM I dunno, but there sure are times I wish Mudcatters would speak in line breaks and HTML links: -Joe Offer- |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: Max Date: 27 Apr 99 - 03:03 PM The official Mudcat greeting is a hug and a kind word. |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: The Shambles Date: 27 Apr 99 - 03:32 PM And that word is? |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: katlaughing Date: 27 Apr 99 - 04:36 PM The word is: "Did", as in I did contribute to the send Max to Montana/MUDSTOCK 99 FUND!*BG* |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: mudpuppy Date: 27 Apr 99 - 05:09 PM The secret handshake is...a beer thrust into an outstretched paw. I'll listen to just about anybody who says howdy that way. |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: Art Thieme Date: 27 Apr 99 - 05:30 PM I think it's O.K. to divulge this now! Back in the 1970s there was an organization (?) started called the F.F.A---The Fat Folksingers of America. We had many members. The membership card featured Wimpy eating a hamburger. Below Wimpy was our slogan in Italian---I may be fat, but I'm not stupid! The membership innitiation was that the new inductee HAD TO TELL ODETTA THAT SHE WAS THE HONORARY PRESIDENT! (What a daunting prospect; nobody would ever do it, but they were allowed in nonetheless.) And we did have a SECRET HANDSHAKE! Here goes: While giving someone a regular handshake, with your other hand you had to try to pull up your trousers over your potbelly where gravity (and one's OWN round shape) had forced the waistband to descend BELOW A DECENT LEVEL. Uttering the words "SAY NO TO CRACK!" was optional---but that accomplishment was most assuredly a byproduct of hoisting your pants. Art Thieme |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: Alice Date: 27 Apr 99 - 05:48 PM Art, you're killin' me. Max is KING, so I go with what he says. Now, what's the password to get into the chatroom? I still can't make it, even with the advice I got about the Java error. |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: Margo Date: 27 Apr 99 - 07:24 PM Steve, if someone did a frailing motion without a banjo I think they'd look like they'd had a stroke and a touch of Parkinson's! ;^) Art, That's too much! But the "Say no to Crack" slogan belongs to the plumbers union, doesn't it? Kat, I think Max meant that we hug and say "A kind word". Margie, in a particularly good mood. |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: DennisM Date: 27 Apr 99 - 08:59 PM 'howzit catman' and to the ladies 'howzit kitten' |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: Tucker Date: 27 Apr 99 - 09:06 PM Ok, The way we catch mudcats here is we let liver set out and get real ripe, making sure we save the juices to plop them in right before baiting the hook. With that in mind let's hold a piece of said rancid liver between thumb and palm when extending outstretched hands. Two things might happen: One. ya met a fellow mudcatter, two, folks will run fighting and screaming to get away from you and you'll probably wake up in an asylum. |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: dick greenhaus Date: 27 Apr 99 - 11:01 PM Most impractical. Why not just buy and wear a Mudcat Tee shirt? Or two? |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: Tucker Date: 27 Apr 99 - 11:09 PM Yeah Dick, less sloppy |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: Art Thieme Date: 27 Apr 99 - 11:18 PM Folks, Check with Scott Alarik in Boston (at the Globe; the folk critic) or Bob Bovee & Gail Heil in Minnesota or Utah Phillips in California or Molly Swisher who designed the membership card if I aint tellin' ya the whole truth about the Fat Folksingers of America and our HANDSHAKE !!! Sad but true... Art |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: gargoyle Date: 28 Apr 99 - 12:07 AM Hack a great big, stinkin' green loogey into the palm of your hand
Extend it with a lecherous grin
Announce that you are a MUDCATTER
And if they return the same... you know that you have found a kindred spirit. |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: MudGuard Date: 28 Apr 99 - 02:29 AM Excuse my ignorance, but: What is a loogey? Andreas |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: Steve Parkes Date: 28 Apr 99 - 03:16 AM Don't tell us, please!! |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: Allan C. Date: 28 Apr 99 - 09:11 AM AndreasW, some would call it mucus but I say itsnot. |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: arkie Date: 28 Apr 99 - 01:31 PM It's hard to believe Bovee & Heil could have ever qualified for the FFA. They were looking pretty trim when they were in Arkansas earlier this month. I'll ask about the FFA when next we meet. |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: Bert Date: 28 Apr 99 - 01:40 PM Yup! That's our Gargoyle!!! |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: Art Thieme Date: 28 Apr 99 - 04:15 PM (early 80's I think)I seem to recall that the F.F.A. was an offshoot of the rendezvous of folksingers that took place in Stevens Point, Wisconsin where we got together in the woods near there to discuss the ins and outs of being a musician on the road and how to come out ahead (and maybe get health insurance too). That was when we created an organization called HEY RUBE. I see the FOLK ALLIANCE as a show-biz high tech version of HEY RUBE. Hey Rube was to Folk Alliance what Woody was to Liberace! But the F.F.A happened at a late night bull session. After the Rendezvous, Molly Swisher created the "membership card" and anyone who wanted one received one. Bob & Gail are still as thin as a rail, for sure, but they became members--by choice. That was an amazing gathering. I've still got photos I took there: Utah & Papa John Kolstadt & Kuddy & Larry Penn & S. Alarik & Mike Carter who died tragically shortly afterwards. Tracy Schwarz was there & Geo. Russell & Jan Mara and a slew o' others. We were all pretty serious; not a note o' music was played all weekend, and there must've been 100 guitars there. After all, we were all on the road doing gigs. And a healthcare package did come out of it!!! Art Thieme |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: Peter T. Date: 28 Apr 99 - 04:25 PM It doesn't look as if I am going to get a good handshake/sign out of this thread which is fraying fast. Rats. Anyone have a good decoder ring? Yours, Peter T. |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: Alice Date: 28 Apr 99 - 05:16 PM Hey, a decoder ring? That's a great idea. I want one, too. Or, how about a stonewashed denim cap with the Mudcat logo embroidered on it? (ooops, already bugged Max in the tee shirt thread about that ;->) |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: Max Date: 28 Apr 99 - 08:29 PM You mean you don't all get the secretly encoded messages within the mudcat? Why do you think I started this bloody site? Try harder. |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: Alice Date: 28 Apr 99 - 09:03 PM Max, do we have to read everything backwards? Hold it up to a mirror? Pour lemon juice on the monitor screen?? hmmm must be a code breaker somewhere... |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: Art Thieme Date: 29 Apr 99 - 09:12 PM On the night of a rising full moon, if you look at the moon and your monitor screen while bending over and looking backwards between your legs, the moon will not only look smaller but you'll be able read the secret message on your screen. (GUYS: Wear Jockey shorts or ya won't be able to see anything at all.) Art |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: Joe Offer Date: 30 Apr 99 - 03:49 AM Ah, I think this thread should have ended right here. Max said it all. Of course, I would prefer a good, pre-yuppie Midwestern handshake to a hug, but the sentiments are the same. It used to be that a handshake meant something. Then the Californians upped the ante and started hugging everybody, but the California hugs had less meaning than a good Midwestern handshake. Now, everybody copies the Californians. I've lived in California for twenty years, but I still prefer to reserve my hugs for my one special love. to survive in California, I've learned to accept hugs from other people with reasonable grace. -Joe Offer- |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: Art Thieme Date: 30 Apr 99 - 11:06 AM Since several spinal surgeries, enthusiastic hugs can be (and are) excruciatingly problematic. Joe, I agree. Art |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: Rick Fielding Date: 30 Apr 99 - 11:21 AM When I got talked into joining a sensitive new-age mens' group a few years ago, my first worry was "what's the protocol", and am I going to fit in. I'm not sure what to do when I walk into a church to see a folk concert, let alone enter a room with 7 other guys who have all memorized Robert Blye. During the bear hugs, I kept thinking "am I supposed to keep my eyes open?"
Have to admit though, anything's better than those handshakes where you're not quick enough and the other guy gives the end of your fingers a firm shake. Rest assured though Peter, next time we meet, I'll have thought of something. |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: bseed(charleskratz) Date: 01 May 99 - 03:36 AM Gargoyle, I'll watch myself around you: your loogie would probably muck up my palm buzzer. --seed |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: Peter T. Date: 01 May 99 - 09:52 AM Dear Rick, Now I am really worried!!! Scrap heap of thought for a Saturday morning: Uriah Heep in David Copperfield is the originator of the fishy handshake. What would a non-fishy fishy handshake be? I remember from "Mame" some years ago (the show not the movie) that there were exercises about rolling around on the floor like a fish; but that would not be suitable for dress occasions. There was a mystery novel I read 20 years ago, about which I only remember that there was a blind guitarist being held hostage somewhere and he communicated out of window by spelling out chord shapes (G,E, etc.). I can't remember how he did the higher letters. I seem to remember that BACH did this with keys. If anyone read this novel, they could maybe give us a way of spelling MUDCAT out with the fingers. Yours, Peter T.
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: Rick Fielding Date: 01 May 99 - 10:49 AM Peter, I guess the guitarist had a limited vocabulary. Many years ago a musician in Toronto was shaking some hands before going on stage and ..you guessed it, a macho type gave him one of those super crunch jobs...busted pinkie..no gig! True story. |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: Peter T. Date: 01 May 99 - 11:14 AM Dear Rick, I hope no one does that to you before your Mayday gig tonight. (It won't be long now comrades! ) (puts lemon juice into keyboard so that message is revealed when secret rays from back of computer monitor come on.) Yours, Peter T.
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: katlaughing Date: 01 May 99 - 11:30 AM Peter T.: I think you're on to something, though! We need to come up with s few tones to hum, ala CLose Encounters of teh Third Kind! Remember that lovely little tune of the space ship and the wild-eyed Richard Dreyfus. I can see it now, Mudders everywhere, tuning in, eyes glazing over, humming a repetitious tune everywhere they go, lest they miss one another. (Oh, jeez, where are the Masons, maybe they'll share their secret handshake!?) if we really started doing that it would just get Muzaked, Hollywooded and then where would we be? katlaughing and going back to the drawring board |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: Peter T. Date: 01 May 99 - 11:47 AM Dear katlaf, As long as people don't start going at the mashed potatoes again. I can't tell you the dinner parties that were ruined by impromptu mesas in those days. Yours, Pete T. |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: Rick Fielding Date: 01 May 99 - 11:52 AM I swear I once saw MAX's face in a grease splatter on the floor of a cafe in Fargo. They're charging admission now. |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: Banjer Date: 01 May 99 - 12:08 PM Seems to me all this stuff about (shhhhh!!) secret handshakes is being too publicised! The whole purpose of a secret handshake is to meet without anyone knowing it, isn't it? I would think that in order to keep it a secret no one should be told or it will defeat the purpose! Or at least tell about it only on a need to know basis, ie: two folks meet, shake hands and one tells the other, "I just shook your hand using the secret handshake!" Works for me...... |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: katlaughing Date: 15 Dec 99 - 04:14 PM refresh |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: InOBU Date: 16 Dec 99 - 08:19 AM I think we have to be careful about having a secret handshake, as it would exclude some potential members, such as Donald Trump - just in case he is a folkie, who is known to have a fear of being touched by other humans, and if we come up with a recognition sign which excludes some with phisical or mental handycaps, one thing we dont want to do is exclude handycapped people with lots and lots of money. So maybe the secret phrase is a good way to go... may be... Music... maybe... but is it art? Mudcaters whos name is art may have troble with this, but they can answer Yes, Art... and you are? Larry |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: lamarca Date: 16 Dec 99 - 03:30 PM Fish lips. Shake hands, and make fish lips at the other person. If they make fish lips back, you've either found another Mudcat member, or someone who's been eating those awful preserved lemon pickles they serve in Persian and Indian restaurants... |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: Marymac90 Date: 16 Dec 99 - 04:46 PM I think we should get rubber catfish barbs made up, and stick 'em to our chins! Mary |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 16 Dec 99 - 09:15 PM I remember when Queen Ida was playing at Cambridge she has everyone doing catfish signs as a sign of enthusiasm. She said it was traditional down in Louisiana.
How to describe? You stick your palm facing forward, pull down the ring and middle fingers and hold then down with your thumb, and you wiggle what's left, which is to say the index and little fingers.
Of course it might be mistaken for some kind of Eastern European cursing ritual, but you've got to take a risk in this life. Or a renegade Vulcan.
I reckon I might just try this one. |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: Escamillo Date: 16 Dec 99 - 10:54 PM I've tried the fishlips trick with no success, except that the guy insisted to take me to "his place" and invited me to very strange parties. No way. Neither the catfish sign is safe, because there are a lot of southern Italians here, and that sign could mean a passport to the other World. Why not grab the other's hand like you would grab a mouse, and make a double-click on it ? .. mmhh.. no, don't need more strange appointments... Yours, Andrés Magré >O< |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: katlaughing Date: 17 Dec 99 - 12:34 AM LOL! Escamillo and McGrath! Priceless images float in my brain thansk to you, both! Maybe we could get our own secret decoder rings made up with the mudcat emblem. I used to work for one of the biggest promotional agencies in Newburgh, NY. I am sure he could get us some CHEAP! I am totally serious! kat |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: InOBU Date: 17 Dec 99 - 12:41 PM Can we use our decoder rings to find out what the Master Kid was in the song Willies Lady? Curriously Larry |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: Peter T. Date: 17 Dec 99 - 04:49 PM I wonder what the old thread was in which I revealed the secret Mudcat handshake. Hmmmm. Perhaps it is lost in the ether, and the secret will die with me. yours, Peter T. |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: Mbo Date: 17 Dec 99 - 05:09 PM As a 3rd generation Southern Italian, the 'catfish' sign is known by us as "the maloikees." It's not a curse, but merely a defensive position against the Evil Eye. If someone gives you the Evil Eye, or admires your baby without saying "God Bless her/him" then you give them the maloikees to counteract the Evil Eye. BTW a small charm representing the maloikees is a popular thing to wear around your neck, to constantly protect you against the Devil (or Balor, ha ha) and his Evil Eye. As for the Mudcat handshake, there's always the blinking oscillating knarleys! Not many people know about them... --Mbo |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: Caitrin Date: 17 Dec 99 - 05:23 PM A finger sign would work...the only problem is that most of them seem to be taken. We'd end up with something complicated that we either wouldn't remember or would break our fingers attempting. Maybe a tattoo. Or a scarlet "M" embroidered on all our clothes. |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: Mbo Date: 17 Dec 99 - 05:27 PM Maybe it could be a password that no one else could pronounce, like the old "Shibboleth" story from the Bible. Use a good word like "Piobaireachd." --Mbo |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 17 Dec 99 - 06:06 PM A sign that means catfish, and wards off ill luck! Two formthen price of one. That sounds good enough for me. \~~/ |
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Subject: RE: Secret Mudcat Handshake From: InOBU Date: 17 Dec 99 - 08:11 PM Maybe it can be a visual, a behavior, like walking into a music pub, right up to the bar and drinking without stop until nearly catatonic, swinging around to anounce that you intend to sing all fifty verses of the longest version of tam lin, backwards, then falling completely out cold on your face. For those of us with impaired liver function we can do the same with diet coke, so all in the know will be sure it is a mudcatter... Janet has kilted her kirtle green ... thump Larry |
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