The other day I was looking for something that just happened to be right in front of me. 😕 (This happens more often than I like to admit.)
Art laughed and said, "Blind mullet, hunh?"
And it occurred to me that I remember that pidgin comment from when I was growing up. Pidgin is often slightly different from island to island. e.g. What Oahu (where I grew up) calls shave ice, Art (who grew up on the Big Island) calls ice shave. He is obviously wrong. 😁
Never mind mainlanders calling it snow cones.
So how did blind mullet come to be?
I looked the term up in my Pidgin to the Max books and didn't see it there.
However, I did find the term on the e-Hawaii website.
Are mullets blind?
And if Art heard it when he was growing up and I heard it on Oahu, it must be everywhere in Hawaii.
I think.
It’s snow cone here in Australia as well.
ReplyDeleteAlso if you’re a bit dazed or bewildered not saying a word…..we’ll say ‘you’re standing there like a stunned mullet’
Wow! You use mullets too! What is it about that fish, anyway? I don't think I've ever seen one.
DeleteI like the blind mullet meaning and may use it when appropriate even if it applies to me. I have had those days too.
ReplyDeleteHawaiians remind me of the Eskimo, you seem to have a name for everything! Well this is certainly a good one but when I hear mullet I think of those 80s haircuts.. 🙂
ReplyDeleteI hadn't heard that expression but I am not going to mention it to anyone I know because then I will be hearing it far too often!
ReplyDeleteThe only mullet I ever heard of was the haircut.
ReplyDeleteI've never heard that expression either... altho it does seem appropriate for certain times. And BTW, in New Orleans, we call them snowballs, not snow cones or shaved ice! (and have them on almost every corner in the summer)
ReplyDeleteBlind mullet is a very interesting expression. I didn't realize there were so many colorful and unique expressions in Hawaiian pidgin. It's interesting how much variation there is from island to island too.
ReplyDeleteI am guilty of same condition.
ReplyDeleteNow you've got me looking up mullet. I always thought it was a type of haircut.
ReplyDeleteYep, I thought it was some current phrase about the old mullet hair cuts and that they were coming back in style.
ReplyDeleteI'd learned that snow cones were little round ice balls, and that shave ice has the razor blade that shaves the ice off of a cylinder of ice. There's a big difference: snow cones are crunchy, shave ice is like biting into a cloud!
The Kansas City Hawaiian Civic Club has a shave ice booth at the Kansas City Ethnic Enrichment Festival every year. We have 3 machines running at a time, and empty 34 gallons of syrup by the end of the 3-day event. Running the machines can actually be dangerous due to the blade below the plate, and the spinning block or round of ice.
So, I presume the mullet fishie is actually blind? Linda in Kansas
I don't see any article saying the mullet is a blind fish. I wonder who started that pidgin phrase.
DeleteOK, now you've made me want to go out and get some shave ice. We have the best stand at Waikele too! Yes, biting into a cloud. I like that.
I have heard people in the South call someone whom they considered stupid a mullet. Maybe a blind mullet is even stupider!
ReplyDeleteGot to tell you, I cherish pidgin, and never heard blind Mullet!
ReplyDeleteSo a mullet is a blind fish? How did the haircut get that name?
ReplyDeleteNo, I they're not blind. I looked up blind mullet and it says another meaning is actually a piece of excrement floating in a lake or river. Sheesh!
DeleteI looked up how the haircut got its name on Wikipedia and got this:
"According to the Oxford English Dictionary, use of the term mullet to describe this hairstyle was "apparently coined, and certainly popularized, by American hip-hop group the Beastie Boys", who used "mullet" and "mullet head" as epithets in their 1994 song "Mullet Head", combining it with a description of the haircut: "number one on the side and don't touch the back, number six on the top and don't cut it wack, Jack."
Pidgin was our main language and I didn't realize that until I was forced to go with my mom to Guam for a year. When I came back, I was so surprised to hear even our teachers speaking pidgin and everyone spoke in a kind of sing song way. Blind mullet, Indian giver, What for, Bumbye.... Now that I have grandsons, I wonder if I should speak to them in pidgin - it would almost be like a secret code language. What you figgah?
ReplyDeleteI remember meeting kids in college who told me they couldn't understand pidgin. I couldn't understand why not. I suppose saying things like, "You like come go with me?" might confuse someone.
DeleteI thought of the bad haircut too.
ReplyDeleteNew to me.
ReplyDeleteFascinating.
ReplyDeleteOn Inspector Frost, his supervisor was called Mullet. I never thought of it, but I wonder if it was an in-joke. A long way from Hawaii, mind you.
ReplyDeleteI've heard of blind mullet too. I will ask Bob Sigall (Rearview) at the Star Advertiser cuz he's been writing emails on pidgin usage. I know mullets are good eats from what my parent's said, avid fish eaters. Keahi Tucker.and Stephanie Lum mentioned. I forget what pidgin phrase it was, that was different from island to island. their reporters are from different islands so they all said it differently. Was it hana okolele? Maui folks use to say only. Like only good. Ats how you could tell Mauians.Big Islanders used another term and yep a Big Island gal I knew used it. Again I forget what it was . I only break out da pidgin wen others talk to me in it. Or wen I get mad and my tita come out."Eh, so wat you tryin' fo' say". But work was only standard English, no one used pidgin in business ever, even among friends. BB
ReplyDeleteI lived on the mainland for 35 years and lost a lot of my pidgin. When I returned to Hawaii, my brother said I gotta talk more local. I can now, buuuut... I don't know if my brother would agree. Hey... We used to say Ahanna okolele a LOT when I was growing up in Waipahu. And remember 'bambucha?' I remember Art's dad had certain phrases that initially made me wonder how his speech on the Big Island was different from Oahu's. And yes, Art too. Then again, Art left for college on the mainland right after high school and then was in the Air Force so he's been away from Hawaii much more than being here.
ReplyDeletewow, l learned something new but don't know that I'll have use of it? lol...
ReplyDeleteMy mother had a similar idiom...if it was a snake, it would have bit you...for something so close and yet unseen.
ReplyDeleteWell, that's a new one on me -- blind mullet. I don't think our fresh waters where I lived had any mullets, blind or otherwise! ha
ReplyDeleteI learn so much reading blogs. Blind mullet is a new one for me. My dad used to say, "I see said the blind man." I have a feeling that is a very old quote. lol
ReplyDeletePidgin English was made an official language by the US Census in 2015. So we can proudly say we are bilingual. https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/30515676/pidgin-now-recognized-as-official-language/ LOL
ReplyDeleteYou were wondering where the term Blind Mullet came from and if they exist. They do exist, in the underground caverns in Moiliili. http://archives.starbulletin.com/2006/02/19/features/story01.html
http://explorebiodiversity.com/Hawaii/hikes/Moiliili/caveorganisms.html
Izsmom
On Kauai, we called it shave ice. It sure made me laugh when my husband from Hilo called it ice shave. (Never heard blind mullet on Kauai.)
ReplyDeleteHeeey... My Kauai cousins used 'blind mullets.' Then again, they probably came to Oahu a lot since my aunt is from here and probably used the term.
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