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Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Keeping Me Up At Night #9

Why is it a "cotton-picking minute"?
Like, how long does it take to pick cotton?
How is a cotton-picking minute different to a normal minute?

I need a coffee.

6 comments:

kiki said...

a cotton picking minute comes from the deep south of the United States.

It is a figure that was used in the buying and selling of slaves

a cotton-picking minute was how much cotton said slave could pick in one minute

it greatly determined their price / treatment

Jo said...

Thanks, kiki.

I appreciate your answer. Really. Very informative.

I kind of preferred it when it was just about me, cotton, question marks and coffee.

redcap said...

Yeah, don't blame you Jo. No-one really wants to think about slavery. We'd all have to say sorry then and that's no damned fun.

davey said...

It's like the old world equivalent of typing speed.

Now wait just one words-a-typin' minute!

Just doesn't have the same ring does it? Damn you, poetic racism!

Maria said...

I didn't know either, but I knew it took a bit less than a minute to properly pick my ear with a cotton bud!

If that had any relevance.

Jo said...

Maria, Kiki can learn a lot from this comment.

Just not... not much about cotton.