Brownie points

[Michael Quinion]

Douglas G. Wilson wrote

> During WW II, in 1943 and 1944, there was a system of rationing of
> food, gasoline, tires, shoes, etc., in the US. In order to buy a
> rationed item one would have to pay its price AND fork over a specified
> number of ration "points" in the form of stamps or tokens (which were
> issued to the citizen or household by the government). For meats and
> fats there were red and brown points, for some other foods green and
> blue.

I've also just found a reference to something called War merit points
at that time, which young people could earn by being helpful; 500 of
them would get them a War Patriot's Certificate. So the idea of
points was most definitely in the air, though so far I've only found
a reference to this particular sort of point from Alabama, so it
might have been a local initiative.

--
Michael Quinion
Editor, World Wide Words
E-mail: <wordseditor at worldwidewords.org>
Web: <http://www.worldwidewords.org/>