Saltine crackers usually appear on my weekly grocery list. We eat more crackers than bread. And, I cook with them. In any recipe calling for bread crumbs, I substitute cracker crumbs for a crisper texture. As we snacked on some saltines the other day, Bob asked me where the phrase, “Polly wants a cracker,” comes from. He often asks about such words and phrases. I had no idea on this one.
Like most everyone else, I headed to the Internet. While I found a variety of ideas, the best source came from Mike O’Connor, owner of the Bird Watcher’s General Store, Orleans, MA. He writes a weekly column, “Ask the Bird Folks,” for The Cape Codder newspaper. He, too, scoured the Internet for information.
O’Connor credits Ben Johnson, a 17th century contemporary of William Shakespeare, for the name Polly. In Johnson’s play, Volpone, Sir Pol Would-Be and his wife traveled to Venice although neither could speak Italian.
O’Conner says, “In order to fit in, the two Brits simply repeated, parrot-style, whatever Italian words they heard the locals say. The play was a hit and the character, Sir Pol, became so popular than many folks started naming their parrots after him. Pol ultimately morphed into Polly and eventually became the generic name for all parrots.”
The phrase “Polly wants a cracker” comes from an advertising slogan by National Biscuit Company, Nabisco, in the late 1800s. According to Cook’s Info, the Josiah Bent Bakery invented crackers similar to today’s soda crackers. Nabisco introduced its Saltines before 1876. According to Anna Goldfarb writing for thekitchn.com, saltines differ from their forerunner, hard tack, because their recipe calls for a “touch of yeast,” in addition to flour and baking soda.
Saltines are square crackers, 2 inches by 2 inches that are salted. Tiny holes (called “docker holes”) are punched in them before baking to allow the steam to escape.
Actually, parrots prefer fruits, vegetables and seeds. Because some species are endangered, wildlife conservationists would prefer that these birds never be tamed and become pets.
In 1907, Merriam-Webster added the word “saltine” to the dictionary with the definition of “a thin, crisp cracker usually sprinkled with salt.” This cracker has been so popular that the recipe hasn’t changed for over a century.
Other definitions for “cracker” include “a bragging liar, something that makes a cracking or snapping noise such as firecracker, the snapping end of a whiplash, a paper holder for a party favor that pops when ends are pulled sharply, an insulting term for a poor, white, usually Southern person, a native or resident of Florida or Georgia, the equipment in which cracking (as of petroleum) is carried out.”
According to NPR, "Cracker, the old standby of Anglo insults was first noted in the mid 18th century, making it older than the United States itself. It was used to refer to poor whites, particularly those inhabiting the frontier regions of Maryland, Virginia and Georgia. It is suspected that it was a shortened version of "whip-cracker," since the manual labor they did involved driving livestock with a whip.”
Florida historian Dana Ste. Claire, says the term dates back to Shakespeare’s, “What craker is this same that deals our ears with this abundance of superfluous breath?”
By the early 1800s, immigrants to the South started to call themselves “Crackers” as a badge of honor. Ste. Claire says, “Jimmy Carter is a cracker. I don’t know if he knows, but I think Jimmy Carter would proudly call himself one.”
In Jesup, the venerable “Cracker” Williams was honored when the park bordered by Brunswick, Orange, Wayne and Bay Streets was named for him. While few, if any, remember how Arthur Gurvaze Williams ended up with this nickname, he is remembered as the “grandfather of Jesup’s organized recreation program. Dink NeSmith once wrote, “The World War I veteran and one time postmaster was a ‘Cracker Jack’ catalyst for making things happen.”
Georgians also know that saltine crackers are at their best when spread with that Southern delicacy, pimiento cheese, or crumbled into soups (especially tomato) and chili. Much of the country has never tasted the delicacy we call pimiento cheese.
Cracker, anyone?
2021
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