Carrots? Australia?

Posted by Brendan on May 15, 2000

In Reply to: Carrots? Australia? posted by Paul Guthrie on May 14, 2000

: : I have been stubbornly working a Telegraph crossword puzzle for days, stuck on a question, but refusing to peek at the answer. I finally gave up, looked up the solution, and I'm as lost as before. The clue was "Carrots can be blue in Australia!" And the answer was Redhead. Is this one of those Britishisms (like cricket slang) that keep us Yanks in the dark? Or am I missing something obvious?

: 'Bluey' is common Australian slang for someone with red hair. (Aussie slang opposite rule.)
: (Ref. members.tripod.com/ ~thisthat/slang.html)

: 'Carrot top' is also a nickname for someone with red hair.

: However I recently saw a red haired comedian on TV who said that when children at school would call him "carrot top", he would retort "well, carrot tops are green, so there!".

Color blindness in the human male - which was higher than the average in early Australians - can cause that wonderful red hair to be indistinguishable from a shade of bluey green. With their world renowned sense of humour the redefined the color.