CR@CKERS & APPALACHIA
Ethelyne ‘cracker’ to be built in Appalachia.
– NPR 12 JAN 12
My uncle Tom told how his wife Vi(olet)
once took him to a ‘cracker’ party: a boy
stood in the center of a room with a pail
of water & box of saltine crackers; she
said: “Be nice Floyd dance!” & so Floyd
danced around the pail with the crackers
that never got wet & no one ever ate.
No matter how intended, Southerners
take it badly at being called ‘crackers’
recalling indentured servants ‘cracking’
tars from pine trees in Georgia. What about
high-octane fuel for combustion ? Will
‘cracker’ rise in occupational status? Will
boys wear T-shirts saying ‘CRAYKUH!
& dam’ proud of it, y’all!” (Wait & see.)
(12 JAN 12, Santa Clara CA) v2
2 comments:
A fruitful source of wordplay, but don't believe people who tell you that the term is derived from "whip-cracker." Originally the word was used to refer to loud talkers and boasters among the hill people of the south, which suggests that the word derives from the Irish and Scottish Gaelic word "craic" ("crack"). See Grady MacWhinney, CRACKER CULTURE, whose work supports but does not endorse this etymology.
If MacWhinney doesn't endorse the craic origin, who does?
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