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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
Anyone of a certain age (40±) in the UK will remember, "It's Friday, It's five to five, It's Crackerjack (loud hurrah)". Crackerjack was the children's entertainment show, a fore-runner to so many of today's programmes. It had the essential ingredients, five minutes of fame for every child, slime, quizzes and if you were really lucky you could leave with a Crackerjack pencil and pen (better than a Blue Peter badge in my book). I suspect that most of us thought that the word had been created for the programme and never enquired any further.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Blue Peter ?!?!?!?!? And you were given a badge for this????? Ohmigawd. I still haven't gotten over that 'keep your p-cker up'!    Are you Brits obsessed with this, or what??? Geez!  Oh, my face is on fire!!
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773 |
Oh, Bel, I about choked trying not to laugh too loud thinking about that traditional ballpark treat, the cracker?
Quid pro quo: When I was quite young, I understood the lyrics to Elvis Presley's Return to Sender to include:
We had a quarrel, a rubber smack.
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 427
addict
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addict
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 427 |
Here is a genuine cracker joke that I think can be understood and groaningly appreciated outside of Britain:
"How is an old loaf of bread like a mouse diving into its hole?" "In that you can see its tail"
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 771
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 771 |
> "...you can see its tail"<Sigh> What the world really needs is a better-developed sense of shame for punchlines like that.  Ouch.
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661 |
There was a monthly magazine in the 70's similar to and in direct competition with "MAD" called "Cracked". I've used the term "crack" often and as my ol' man did to mean a smart-alecky term, and he was quite specific about it! I should know, I was standing on the directrix. 
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Speaking of Mad Magazine, one of their catch phrases back when I more or less regularly (Hi, Jackie) read it was :
It's crackers to slip a rozzer the dropsy in snide.
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 17
stranger
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stranger
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 17 |
At Christmas, we have crackers made of paper shaped like a tube with a small strip inside which can be pulled at both ends to produce a BANG like a cap pistol or a fire cracker. Hence the name , I suppose. The paper tube usually also contains a paper hat, a motto/joke, and a little toy. Some are very expensive and the favours inside are quite elegant. Most of us just buy the inexpensive ones as a reminder of times past.
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439 |
Blue Peter ... Here's the website, ---------------------------------------- Dear jmh, Went to the site. The music will not play. Up in the BBC corner it says "print only." And although I really really looked I could not find any explanation of the name. Please tell this poor benighted soul. wow I get the naughty bit. It's the show I'm asking about
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