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Joined: Nov 2000
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old hand
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OP
old hand
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 866 |
Why would someone be out of their "cotton picking" mind?
When did this saying arise - and why?
stales
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Dear States: "cotton picking" is a pejorative, in that only
the lowest socical stratum got involved in picking cotton
by hand, which was incredibly tedious, backbreaking (because of constant bending over) and hot.
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
got this from WordOrigins:
Cotton-Picking
Believe it or not the adjective cotton-picking comes from Bugs Bunny and the Looney Tunes cartoons. He may not have been the first to use it, but he gets credit for first recorded use.
But the noun cotton-picker is older. It dates to around 1919 and refers to a contemptable person. Those who worked in the fields, usually blacks, were beneath notice. The racial overtones have mellowed over the years, but it is still a derogatory term.
formerly known as etaoin...
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Joined: Sep 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788 |
Tennessee Ernie Ford was on American television form the med-fifies through the mid-sixties and often ended his show by saying to the audience, "Bless your little pea-pickin' hearts."
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Joined: Jun 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636 |
Yeah, you've got to give peas a chance.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
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Well, Connie, they were given some prominence in 13th century England, where a famine in 1273 in Northern England reduced the whole population of the area to eat peas and nowt else for nearly three months. The Lord of the Manor, however, had a herb garden which had not failed, so his family and immediate retainers were able to relieve the tedium of such a uni-vegetative diet by adding thyme to the cooking pot.
The peasants heard about this, and, believing that the Lord of the Manor had penty of thyme on his lands, got the priest to utter the prayer in church one Sunday, in front of the Lord of the Manor and his family, "Grant us thyme in our peas, O Lord!"
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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And he gave it to them, of course, since there's no present like the thyme.
Somewhat along the same lines, I heard a long time ago that the Italians are going to make the Leaning Tower of Pisa into a clocktower -- after all, what's the use in having an inclination if you haven't got the time?
TEd
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
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Some company has come out with what amounts to pea pod chips. I think they dry the pods some way, and season them. They might be ground-up peas or pods re-formed into the pod shape; I don't really remember. But I do remember my local grocery store offering free samples. They have a consistency on a par with puffed corn (like baked Cheetos), and they taste...absolutely horrid.  Something else at the store stopped me in my tracks a couple of weeks ago. They now stock something called--I kid you not--"Healthy Hemp Sprouted Bread". Yes, it does have the plant in it.
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