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Cut off your crusts

Posted by Gary on January 05, 2005

In Reply to: Cut off your crusts posted by R. Berg on January 05, 2005

:
: : : I was having trouble understanding the meaning of this phrase, and could really use some help.

: : : "Did your mother cut off your crusts?" I have also heard "You should eat your crusts"

: : I don't know about elsewhere in the world, but American schoolchildren eat a lot of sandwiches. Sometimes their mothers cut off the crust. Well, of course, there are restaurants that do the same, but the more common experience has mom cutting off the crusts. Or not. SS

: Some fussy children refuse to eat bread crusts. An indulgent mother might pamper them by removing the crust from bread before serving it. I haven't heard "Did your mother...," but I can imagine it used as a retort to an adult who expects others to do favors for him. A known catchphrase for the same situation is "What did your last servant die of?"

In the UK children are, or at least used to be, encouraged to eat their crust by being told, "you won't get curly hair unless you eat your crusts". That worked on me as a tot. I can clearly remember the time that I realised that I didn't want to have curly hair anyway.

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