James Rummell writes:
Please take pity on an ignorant American
Howdy,
You posted about students and their parents that are hopelessly helpless. The anecdote that started it off was about a young student who was missing buttons on her shirt. Instead of sewing a few back on, she said that her mother would buy a new shirt when paid.
The point was that a basic sewing kit would have saved some cash. (As an aside I agree, and I do basic sewing repairs myself. Not that it's particularly surprising or unusual.) But it was one of the things you said about cheap sewing kits that puzzled me.
"I got a perfectly usable kit in a Christmas cracker."
Okay, small sewing kits are nifty and I have a few of them myself. But what's a Christmas cracker? Depending on who you're talking to here in the United States, it's a fellow who lives in a trailer park that likes to dress up in a Santa Claus outfit or it's some plain soda crackers that no one in the US would associate with the holiday feast.
And why would there be a sewing kit in a cracker package? Some cruel joke? You want to thicken up the bowl of chicken noodle soup you're having for lunch and, instead, there's a sewing kit. Oh, the humanity!
Now, I suspect that Mr Rummell, who has researched all sorts of
interesting things in his time could
find out if he wanted to. All he wanted was an excuse to make humorous remarks about the barrier of a common language and some other possible meanings of the words
Christmas Cracker. But now he has to find out who those unkempt-looking persons in the pictures are or be left to wonder...
forever. As I believe our American cousins put it, Ha-Bwa-Bwa-Bwa-Bwa!
posted by Natalie at 10:07 AM
