Comment by preommr
2 days ago
> Back of the fag pack,
napkins, and envelopes at least kind of make sense.
Who was ever writing on the back of cigarette packs?
2 days ago
> Back of the fag pack,
napkins, and envelopes at least kind of make sense.
Who was ever writing on the back of cigarette packs?
> Who was ever writing on the back of cigarette packs?
British officers planning trench raids in the front lines during WWI. Or, at least, that's where I've been told the expression originates.
Really, though, is it impossible to imagine no one, ever, using a cigarette pack to jot something down? It's a colloquialism. It doesn't even have to be taken literally to make sense. What is gained by questioning it on that level?
> is it impossible to imagine no one, ever, using a cigarette pack to jot something down?
Wouldn't the back have printing on it? I could imagine someone ripping the pack open and writing on the insides, which are blank.
In quite a few countries they were rather blank, not like today!
I don't know what cigarette packaging looked like at the time, but can imagine they were possibly government provided in a very simple paper package.
1 reply →
cigarette packs have not been blank on the back since the commenter has been alive
> Really, though, is it impossible to imagine no one, ever, using a cigarette pack to jot something down? It's a colloquialism. It doesn't even have to be taken literally to make sense. What is gained by questioning it on that level?
I took the OP's question to really be a question about the origin of that phrase, and with your answer, I learned something I didn't know before. So I, for one, am happy the question was asked.
I'm glad it was asked too and enjoyed the answer.
The OP's question was clearly skeptical though:
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napkins, and envelopes at least kind of make sense.
Who was ever writing on the back of cigarette packs?
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Implication being that writing on the back of cig packs does not make sense. I'd agree with your reading if not for the "at least kind of make sense" bit.
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Bike shedding.
this is funny because I know so many people who always note down phone numbers and such for the day on cigarette packs. sometimes even carrying a few with them all the time.
in india.
Smokers who didn't have napkins or envelopes handy, presumably.