"critter"

[victor steinbok]

But surely that was a joke on "fried" insects rather than any kind of ethnic
slur... No? A deep-fried soft-shell crab is a "crispy critter". Electric bug
lamps create "crispy critters"--although these were invented a bit later.
Moths caught in light fixtures are "crispy critters", etc. Given that
deep-fried and grilled insects and other "critters" are not uncommon in
Southeast Asia, this sounds fairly typical of what one would expect from war
humor.

VS-)

On Sat, Aug 27, 2011 at 7:43 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

>
> A glance at HDAS suggests just how common "crispy critter" was among
> Vietnam
> War writers.
>
> IIRC, the cereal appeared around 1964.
>
> JL

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