In England is the word "crackers" used to describe a person(or cat in the instance I am referring to) who is thought to be a little "off center"??? I knew a cat named Crackers, who had an unusual personality, to say the least!
Don't know about 'a cracker' used to mean a lie. If an extraordinarily strange or funny anecdote is related, one might say "That was a cracker!" The cat being called crackers definitely means it's barmy. I've heard 'crack' used by the Irish to mean a good time, or a good laugh, I think. The only other word I know which closely fits this meaning is an Austrian term 'Gaudi'. Or could one say 'merriment' perhaps? 'Crack' also means a blow, or wallop, which, I guess is why one says 'Give it a crack mate'.
Bill, you are bringing back things I should have thought of, of course I have heard of "Georgia Crackers" but since my mind has turned into sieve I guess that info sifted right on thru! The cat's family could have been from Georgia! I prefer to think they recognized the cat as a bit "barmy"! Not familiar with the "redneck" connotation. And I live around a lot of them. Good ole boys!
crack / good time There is the common U.S. usage of "a cracking good time", but don't know if this is related to the Irish expression.
Incidentally, I believe that the use of the term "cracker" to denote a redneck, or uncouth person in general, is considerably more than mildly pejorative. In some circles, at least, it is as bad as the infamous "n....." word commonly used by crackers.
There was a popular confection by that name consisting of molasses candy coated popcorn, in a cardboard carton the size of a one pound sugar box. And every box had a small metal casting of animals,etc.,as a prize which made it extra popular with little kids, who used to collect and trade them.
ohmygosh, bill, i can't believe you remembered that. i never would've recalled those delightful little metal tigers and such had you not posted. Cracker Jacks are still around, but nowadays all you get is some crummy little lick-your-hand-and-stick-it-on tattoo.
can anyone remember any other prizes? i remember them being in a package similar to a bandaid... and have a vague recollection of little brightly-colored jointed plastic animals, kind of two-dimensional.
did they ever give out jacks... as in the X X X o X X X game?
Faldage points out: The Atlanta minor league baseball team (before the Braves moved in) was known as the Crackers. The Negro Leagues team was the Black Crackers.
Beat me to it.... "Black Crackers" being a particularly ironic name (if remembered etymology serves)
Crackers are festively decorated paper tubes with a twist in the paper about a quarter of the way from each end. There are also two long thin card bands going down the middle joined with some sort of explosive substance at the midpoint so that it makes a bang when you pull them apart; two people do this by each holding on to one of the ends of the paper tube and pulling. The large middle section also contains a paper party hat, a small toy, and an execrable joke or riddle (the worse the better). They're most often used at Christmas dinners or lunches.
I once saw these crackers (also popular in Australia), through the shop window of Harrods, London, for around 80 quid a pop! Imagine if that didn't make a bang!
Mr Bingley's description was "perfick". It's a bit out of season but here is some more information:
Christmas Crackers
The Christmas cracker was invented in 1847 by Tom Smith, a baker of wedding cakes from Clerkenwell, London.
On a trip to Paris in 1840 Smith discovered the "bon-bon," a sugared almond wrapped in a twist of paper. Back in London, his "new" sweets became quite popular. When he noticed that young men were buying them for their sweethearts he began to place love mottoes on small slips of paper inside the wrapping. In 1846, standing at his fireplace, the crackle of a log gave him the flash of inspiration for the cracker. After much experimentation (and burning hands and furniture), he got it right. He pasted small strips of saltpetre to two strips of thin card. As the cards were pulled away from each other, the friction created a crack and a spark. (The concept is still used today.) By 1947, Tom Smith's cracking sweets were the fashion. They were first known as "Cosaques" after the cracking of the Cossack's whips as they rode through Paris during the Franco-Prussian wars. The name stuck for about another decade before simply being known as Christmas crackers.
The cracker concept was hot and others were quick to copy Smith's idea. The outer wrapper became the showcase in the fight for market share, with more varied and colourful designs. They were also being sold 12, sometimes 6, in a matching box. It forced Smith to head for the patent office to protect his design, and his company, called the Tom Smith Crackers.
By the 1880s, Smith's company produced more than a hundred cracker designs. By 1900, Smith sold more than 13 million crackers. They were being used not just at Christmas, but at just about any festive occasion, including fairs and coronations.
In 1933, printed foil wrappers with individual designs were launched. The contents became more complicated, some featuring glass pendants, brooches, bracelets and other jewellery.
Here's how to make one: http://www.imagitek.com/xmas/crafts/cracker.html This site: http://www.absolutelycrackers.com includes the following gem: A CHRISTMAS cracker-maker has had to hire a joke checker - because Americans don't get our gags. The new recruit has to weed out "peculiarly English" jokes after complaints from U.S. distributors. Gags they didn't get include: Q: What mint can't you eat? A: The Royal Mint. Q: Where do policemen live? A: Letsbe Avenue. Q: Which panto is set in a chemist's shop? A: Puss in Boots. Boss Keith Langford, 30, of Absolutely Crackers in Milton Keynes, Bucks, said: "We don't want to upset the Americans. We do a lot of business with them." Published in The Sun (UK) 10 December 1998
Sign me up as one the Americans who doesn't get those jokes. Could we have some explanations, please?
I think I get the Royal Mint joke, when you take this definition of Mint: 1.A place where the coins of a country are manufactured by --- or: 3.An abundant amount, especially of money.
But as for the others... I can't even pretend to have a clue. I want the answers too!
Maverick is quite right. Crackers do not have good jokes.
Q: What mint can't you eat? A: The Royal Mint Yes you are right, the Royal Mint is where money is made.
Q: Where do policemen live? A: Letsbe Avenue Policeman are supposed to say, "Let's be having you"
Q: Which panto is set in a chemist's shop? A: Puss in Boots A chemists is a pharmacist. The biggest chain is called Boots. "Puss in Boots" is the name of a pantomime. We discussed pantomimes in another thread. As we said, you didn't miss much!
The interesting thing is that until it was discussed here, I would have had no idea that these were not easily understood jokes, let alone the crackers in which they reside.
>Policeman are supposed to say, "Let's be having you"
Huh? I still don't get it. I mean, I get the wordplay, but I don't understand what a policeman would mean by that. The remedial explanation please... and use small words, if you don't mind. [slobbering lackwit emoticon]
Thanks, jmh, for the Cliff Notes. Cultural referents are everything to humor; that's why TV dramas are more readily imported across the pond than are comedies. We'll remake British comedy hits here, keeping the premise but recreating the characters and dialogue, but Masterpiece Theater can lift BBC dramas whole. And the whole planet seems to understand the T & A of "Baywatch." (blech)
>Policeman are supposed to say, "Let's be having you"
You know when in a TV Cop show the cops says "You have the right to .... etc, etc etc". In an old UK Police programme like "Dixon of Dock Green" they would have said "Let's be 'avin you", none of that legalese stuff!
It's a jocular way of arresting someone from the days when you could spot a villain from their shifty expession. It means "Come with me to the police station". No great word play, just an expression. The reply would be "It's a fair cop guv, I wus only taking some coal to put on the fire for my starving missus and children". You knew where you stood in those days!
See ... we said it really, really wasn't worth it.
Per Webster's: A "cracker jack" is a person who does something especially well. It is descended from "crackajack," a rhymed compound from "crack" when used as an adjective for excellent.
Per Symbols of America, by Hal Morgan: Cracker Jack, the popcorn and peanut candy, was named from the slang term crackerjack, for excellent, which had entered the language in 1896. The candy was first made by FW Rueckheim, a German immigrant in Chicago, who opened a popcorn stand in 1872. The business first sold Crackerjack at the Columbian Exposition in 1893. It was marketed in the Sears catalogue in 1902, and became part of song lyrics in Take Me Out to the Ballgame in 1908. The little boy in the sailor suit on the package was modeled on Rueckheim's grandson, Robert, and the dog after the boy's dog, Bingo. Robert died of pneumonia soon after the new box with him on it appeared in 1919.
Per Charles Funk, in Horse Feathers & Other Curious Words: When used to describe certain residents of the southern US, "Crackers" was derived from a use going back to before 1509, when it described a person given to boasting, tall stories or lying. The term was being applied to ignorant and shiftless people in the southern US by 1766, and evolved into a term which southerners apply to themselves now without necessarily pejorative implications.
"Crackpot" comes from the use of "pot" to refer to the head.
>became part of song lyrics in Take Me Out to the Ballgame in 1908.
What are you saying? The song doesn't say "buy me some peanuts and crackers Jack" [hide in shame and finding out I have been mondegreening this song FOR EVER emoticon]
>The song doesn't say "buy me some peanuts and crackers Jack"
not only that, but furthermoreover (and in the second place), it doesn't say "buy me some peanuts and cracker jackS"!! at least *you had the rhyme correct. hmmmph...
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.
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!!
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.
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.
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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The typical English cracker joke makes the humour/work ratio in TEd's longest shaggy dog story seem atrractive
[hide in shame and finding out I have been mondegreening this song FOR EVER emoticon]
Ouch.
