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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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No apology required IMHO. I merely wished to verify that the usage I believed I knew was correct and that it would have been used in the period I understood it to have been used in.
I don't remember ever hearing the expression used in conversation. These days it seems to be pretty much a literary term. I wanted to point out that that wasn't always the case.
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I know of it only because, in college, my roommate's girlfriend had stumbled upon the phrase and loved it. She often referred her current age as "her salad days", meaning (to her) the days in which she intended to garner experience. I never had the nerve to ask whether the salad was wilted. 
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Joined: Mar 2000
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addict
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addict
Joined: Mar 2000
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and it was the name of a very successful, but light, musical theatre piece written by Dorothy Reynolds and Julian Slade in 1954.
"Maybe I'll wait till I'm too late,
But I shall have waited for one good reason.
Here in the sun, the sun, the sun,
I might be in love by the end of the season."
"We mustn't look back. No, we mustn't look back.
Whatever our memories are.
We mustn't say these were our happiest days,
But our happiest days so far."
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Joined: Nov 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I don't remember ever hearing the expression used in conversation. These days it seems to be pretty much a literary term.
I use it all the time. Meaning from about the ages 18 to 24.
I hear it, too. It is taken as meaning carefree days, before adult responsibilities became the ruling factor.
Nobody asks what I mean (and beieve me, my chums will ask) so I presume that the meaning is generally understood to be as mentioned above.
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Joined: Jun 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I think the replacement phrase for salad days these days is---"back in the day". I liked this phrase when I first heard it and use it a lot. Too much, some say   .
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Posts: 1,773
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Cracker Jack isn't named for anybody, inventor or otherwise. 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 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.
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veteran
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veteran
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Ann, thanks for reminding us of the origins of Crackerjack. I had heard it before and was glad to see it again. What a sad ending. It's sort of the reverse of a story about a dog and his master who died. I have read that there is a statue in Edinburgh of the dog, whose name I have forgotten (Robbie?) Perhaps Jo can enlighten us.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I remember the dog was a Scottie called Greyfriars Bobbie, who lived in Edinburgh. When his master died Greyfriars Bobbie spent the rest of his life lying on the grave except when he was making the rounds of local restaurants who fed him. I think this was in the 1880s but I'm not sure of the exact date.
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Bingley
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