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Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 389
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 389 |
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
Utopia ~ "Class Dismissed."  Well, that would be one element for sure!
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Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 176
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Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 176 |
Deep down (and even not so deep down – all the way up to just below the very top, in fact) I really didn’t think you meant it in the pejorative sense, TEd. But I have never heard the term ‘cracker’ applied to people in any other way. Used in the pejorative, it didn’t make sense to me in the context, and so my question arose from confusion more than anything else.
I’ve never heard of cracking corn to make liquor, although I knew corn could be used to make liquor – ‘good corn liquor’ and all that. I wonder if the song ‘Jimmy Crack Corn’ (“Jimmy crack corn and I don’t care. Jimmy crack corn and I don’t care. Jimmy crack corn and I don’t care, ‘cause the master’s gone away.”) refers to making liquor?
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Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 133
member
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Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 133 |
I had never heard of the Black Crackers. Neat!
Here in sunny(usually) Florida many people think that the term came from the early cattlemen's use of cracking whips to keep the herds together during cattle drives.
I recently heard a teenager express anger at being called a cracker, first I knew of that. Most of us whose families have been here a few generations take "cracker" to mean a native Floridian, of which there are quite a large minority.
Some think it a compliment, meaning that today's true crackers carry on the resourcefulness and uprightness of the pioneer settlers. I mean the real pioneers, not the land barons. Sometimes the "damn yankees" thought crackers were backward and somewhat shiftless, and some were, but not all. If anyone tried to insult me by calling me a cracker, it wouldn't work!
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065 |
An article on sumptuary laws in Roman times: http://makeashorterlink.com/?F3D32550AIt seems that despite his reputation nowadays, even Nero passed sumptuary laws. Bingley
Bingley
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