brown-bagging

[Natalie Maynor]

Jerome Foster wrote:
> Brown-bagging , I've always understood, was bringing your own lunch from
> home to work or to a meeting or other event.

That usage is common here (Mississippi) now, but back in The Olden Days
brown-bagging meant taking liquor to restaurants and ordering set-ups.
I'm pretty sure it was illegal, but it was overlooked.  After all,
Mississippi is, I think, the only state in the country that levied a
"black-market tax" on bootleggers.
   --Natalie Maynor (maynor at ra.msstate.edu)