Friday's Folklore Roundup

It may appear that I only do Folklore Friday on every third Friday of every third month. But that is not true. I sometimes post it on a Thursday. It's half-assed, I know, but I ain't getting paid for it or anything. So enjoy, my three readers!

• The Pennsylvania German Folklore Society of Ontario celebrate their 60th anniversary this year. If there is one thing I love to read about, it is the migration pattern of Germans. I knew about the Pennsylvania German settlements down the Shenandoah Valley, but I did not know that they went North as well. I wish the society another successful sixty years!
• As I type this, the AFS meeting is going on at Indiana University. Back when I was a lowly graduate student I never made it to one of those meetings, but I reveled in hearing my mentor tell me stories about who was drunk at the bar during the meetings. Henry Glassie is giving the keynote this year. I should iterate that Prof. Glassie was never reported as drunk. In fact, I had the honor of being introduced to him by my mentor. It was like meeting a Beatle.
• The JAFL has recently posted a not-too-glowing review of the book "African American Folktales."
• Are you at the AFS meeting? Then tomorrow you can assert folklore's relevancy by attending the discussion of Occupy Wall Street hosted by Jason Baird Jackson and Christina Barr. I spent some time the other day at Occupy Boston and was moved to tears by some of the signs (a folk art if ever I saw one).
• I think the headline says it all: "Materials from AFS Undergraduate Education Project Available." Click if you're interested in that sort of thing - you probably are if you've read this far. I really liked the well-written and well-thought out comment from Robert Bethke. Doesn't he know that the comment sections on websites are for trolling and snark, not intelligent discussion.
• If I was at the AFS meeting, this is the poster I would check out first.
• Lithuanian-American folklorist Jonas Balys has passed away.
• Banjoist Wade Mainer has also passed on.

Exelsior!