Chapter & Verse

F. Markoe Rivinus requests the title and the other words of a song he heard in the late 1950s; he remembers two lines: “You ain’t no...

F. Markoe Rivinus requests the title and the other words of a song he heard in the late 1950s; he remembers two lines: “You ain’t no bigger than a bug is big/Oh, you cute little thingamajig!”


Harry Goldgar asks if someone can supply the identity of the “Institute” referred to in, and a specific origin for, an “abundantly Googled” cheer he dates to the 1920s or earlier: “Rooty-toot-toot, rooty-toot-toot,/We are the boys from the Institute./We don’t smoke and we don’t chew,/And we don’t go with the girls that do.”


“skywest and crooked” (July-August 2004). Jerry Leath Mills found this expression in Fred Gipson’s 1949 novel Hound Dog Man, in an early account of a raccoon hunt: “that old coon [was] slapping the dogs sky-west and crooked.”


Send inquiries and answers to “Chapter and Verse,” Harvard Magazine, 7 Ware Street, Cambridge 02138.

Most popular

Bringing Korean Stories to Life

Composer Julia Riew writes the musicals she needed to see.

How MAGA Went Mainstream at Harvard

Trump, TikTok, and the pandemic are reshaping Gen Z politics.

Shakespeare’s Greatest Rival

Without Christopher Marlowe, there might not have been a Bard.

Explore More From Current Issue

Book cover of "Black Moses" by Caleb Gayle with subtitle about ambition and the fight for a Black state.

Civil Rights in the American West

A new book chronicles one man’s quest for a Black state.

Man splashing water on his face at outdoor fountain beside woman holding cup near stone building.

Why Heat Waves Make You Miserable

Scientists are studying how much heat and humidity the human body can take.

Johnston Gate

Your Views on Harvard’s Standoff, Antisemitism, and More

Readers comment on the controversial July-August cover, authoritarianism, and scientific research.