Why did Yankee Doodle name the feather in his hat Macaroni?
370275
NewJoe is correct, Macaroni was the name of a coffee/chocolate house in London frequented by homosexuals. But Macaroni came to be a slang term for the elaborate clothing favored by the patrons, a style that was all the rage even with straight men and women for a while ... lots of lace and ruffles, velvets, bright colors, and so on. \n\nThe phrase is making fun of Americans for being provincial, for not understanding the nuances of fashion in the big city. (Kind of like people in New York City make fun of tourists from Kansas who don't know how to dress?) \n\nThe idea is that Doodle was trying to be high fashion on the cheap .. it takes a lot more than just a feather in your hat to come up to be 'Macaroni', just like it takes more than fancy shoe laces to be 'South Beach'.
235238
because it was originally made with lamb.\n\nSee...
373231
name of a root.\n\nwhy is a snicker doodle name that ? doesnt look like a snicker or a doodle.
1176295
The most likely answer is that it is a  deliberate\nmisspelling of Charlie, the usual nickname for\nCharles.  I seem to remember seeing it used this\nway in print, but can't remember where.
678675
And don't forget, it's Babe Ruth, not Baby Ruth who is the baseball player. The Baby Ruth candy bar was probably not named after the baseball player, but the true origin of the candy bar's name is disputed.\n\nIt was said at one time that the bar was named after the daughter of President Grover Cleveland (not Teddy Roosevelt), but she actually died in 1904, and the candy bar did not appear until 1920.\n\nBabe Ruth did demanded royalties for use of his name on the best-selling product. But the business of sports endorsements was still in its infancy, and the courts turned him down
61703
Well "cookie" meaning a person, is american slang, first appearing in print about 1920.\n\nThe first appearance in print of "smart cookie" -- not who said it first -- was in the 1948 book F. BROWN Murder can be Fun (1951) x. 146 A smart cookie, that Wilkins.\n\nIt probably stemmed from hard-boiled gangster slang.
63568
The Frisbie Baking Company (1871-1958) of Bridgeport, Connecticut, made pies that were sold to many New England colleges. They used the pie plates as frisbie and thus the toy was born.
279081
the word is pronounced kernel as  result of having entered the English language from middle french in two competing forms coronel and colonel.  so the second basically won the writing contest and the first  the pronunciation one. in the other way it is written and pronounced coronel in Spanish.
647885
I may be wrong but I believe it was Rutherford B Hayes. He was born in Ohio, and I think he prefered them in a sweet potatoe pie. If I am wrong, forgive me.
970923
Parcells earned the nickname "The Big Tuna" when he responded to a statement from a player with the incredulous "Who do you think I am? Charlie the Tuna?" Link below).\n\nor\n\nFrom "The Tuna" himself........(interview).\n\n[Coach Parcells discusses how he got the nickname ''Tuna'' at a 1997 press conference.] \nBill Parcells:   I think it goes back to my first time with the Patriots. There was an old commercial from StarKist with Charlie the StarKist tuna. So my players were trying to con me on something one time, and I said, 'You must think I'm Charlie the Tuna,' you know, a sucker, and that's kind of how it started. We started with it that year and [Charlie and the other fish] used to wear those little tuna helmets, you know, tuna pictures on their helmets. That's where it all started.
649809
in his cap\n\nBut it was a feather in his cap not his finger!
546068
Historians aren't completely certain how the character "Uncle Sam" was created, or who (if anyone) he was named after. The prevailing theory is that Uncle Sam was named after Samuel Wilson.\n\nWilson was born in Arlington, Mass., on September 13, 1766. His childhood home was in Mason, New Hampshire. In 1789, he and his brother Ebenezer walked to Troy, New York.\n\nDuring the War of 1812, Wilson was in the business of slaughtering and packing meat. He provided large shipments of meat to the US Army, in barrels that were stamped with the initials "U.S." Supposedly, someone who saw the "U.S." stamp suggested -- perhaps as a joke -- that the initials stood for "Uncle Sam" Wilson. The suggestion that the meat shipments came from "Uncle Sam" led to the idea that Uncle Sam symbolized the federal government.\n\nSamuel Wilson died in 1854. His grave is in the Oakwood Cemetery in Troy.\n\nUncle Sam's traditional appearance, with a white goatee and star-spangled suit, is an invention of artists and political cartoonists; Samuel Wilson did not look like the modern image of Uncle Sam. For example, Wilson was clean-shaven, while Uncle Sam is usually portrayed with a goatee.\n\nThomas Nast, a prominent 19th-century political cartoonist, produced many of the earliest cartoons of Uncle Sam. However, historians and collectors take note: Many of Nast's cartoons may appear to depict Uncle Sam, while in fact they depict Yankee Doodle or "Brother Jonathan." It is easy to mistake a Brother Jonathan cartoon for one of Uncle Sam, since both figures wear star-spangled suits of red, white and blue. As a rule, Brother Jonathan was drawn with a feather in his cap, while Uncle Sam was not; and Uncle Sam is nearly always drawn with a beard, while Brother Jonathan was clean-shaven.\n\nSome have suggested that Dan Rice, a 19th-century clown, inspired Thomas Nast's Uncle Sam cartoons. Rice's clown costume consisted of a hat and star-spangled suit, much like the costome worn by Uncle Sam. However, Rice was born in 1823, and did not begin clowning until 1844; and Uncle Sam cartoons appeared as early as 1838. Therefore, it seems unlikely that Rice was, in fact, the inspiration for Nast's cartoons.\n\nThe single most famous portrait of Uncle Sam is the "I WANT YOU" Army recruiting poster from World War I. The poster was painted by James Montgomery Flagg in 1916-1917.
958566
I stuff my bird with homemade stuffing.  Did you know it's called stuffing if you stuff it into the bird and dressing when you cook it in a dish.  I didn't know that until someone told me last Thanksgiving.
270248
Doughboys in WW2 they were called Yanks...
780256
It is a way of showing how greatful and happy we are, for all the good food that has just been brought in from the fields, that has been grown and harvested.\n\nAnd greatful for our friends and families, where we live.\n\nWhen it began it celebrated the Pilgrims landing on Plymouth Rock and having this good meal with the Native Americans, who showed them how to cook and prepare foods in this New World we call America.\n\nIt was also to be greatful to a higher power, but I think we have forgotten that.  I hope not. That is up to each individual choice.
718003
Your question made me curious enough to do a little searching.  Turns out nobody is sure of where the term "Yankee" actually originated.  During the American Revolution, the Brits called us Yankees as a cut-down, and being the Americans they were, after they kicked the Brits butts, they adopted the term for themselves.  Perverse bunch, aren't we?  Best guess has to do with the Dutch being called Yankees well before our little party in 1776.
763752
Well we have the New York Yankees, people from the northeast of the US are called Yankees, Yankee Doodle is a well loved American song, there's Yankee pot roast too!  In my personal experience people I have been good friends with from England, Canada, and Australia call me a "yank".  Never had a problem with it.  I think Americans are so patriotic that the word "Yankee" could never be an insult.