Crumbs in bed
Two weeks ago in a column I dissed Twitter, saying it “displays the slimy underbelly of American society.” My opinion hasn’t changed. But every once in a while, you find something fascinating in a tweet – like how Triscuit snack crackers got their name.
Well, at least I found it fascinating when I woke up at 3:30 a.m., couldn’t go back to sleep and wound up on Twitter. I saw that the hashtag #Triscuit was trending. I needed to know why.
Twitter user Sage Boggs related that, several years ago, he had attended a party where he spotted a box of Triscuit. Wondering how they got their name (apparently it was a dull party), Boggs asked attendees for their ideas. Everyone agreed that it was a play on the word “biscuit,” but no one could determine what “tri” meant, except that it must refer to “three.” But what three things? Ingredients? The number of crackers you can eat before you mouth becomes as dry as the Mohave Desert?
I guess I should explain here that I’m fascinated by word derivations. I’m also stupid: It took me almost 35 years to realize that Palmolive dishwashing liquid was named by combining the words “palm” and “olive.”
Triscuit? I was hooked.
In separate tweets, Boggs said he had Googled Triscuit but found no insight into the origin of the name. He then emailed Nabisco, which manufactures Triscuit. The company responded, saying “no business records remain” about why the product is called Triscuit. The company allowed that it was a play on the word “biscuit,” but also pooped the party by saying “the TRI does not mean 3.”
“Egad, Watson!” I said! “The game is afoot!”
To which Watson – my partner in crime, now also awake – replied, “Will you please shut up? I’m trying to do this puzzle!”
Shut up? Would you ask Diogenes, haunting the streets of Athens in search of an honest man, to extinguish his lantern?
I didn’t actually say this, but …
Maybe 15 minutes later, I finished reading the thread, wherein Boggs revealed that he had continued his search and found an original advertising campaign for Triscuit, which appeared in the early 1900s.
“Triscuit: The Electric Baked Biscuit.” reads the copy on the box shown in the ad. “Baked by Electricity by the Natural Food Co., Niagara Falls, USA.” In separate copy, more detail is given: “Triscuit is baked by electricity, the only food on the market prepared by this 1903 process.”
There it was! Triscuit – elec-TRI-city bu- SCUIT!
Take a minute now, as I did, to revel in this information. You’re quarantined; what else have you to do? Exciting!
I shut off my phone and stuck it under my pillow. Watson continued her quest to finish the electronic jigsaw puzzle. I shut my eyes. But my mind was racing.
“This is so cool!” I said. “I wonder how other products got their name.”
“Mmnmn,” said Watson.
Several seconds of silence ensued. Then, hit with a revelation, I asked: “Where do you think the name ‘macaroni and cheese’ came from?”
Without glancing away from her puzzle, Watson said, “Where do you think the word ‘HOME-icide’ came from?”
I’m Googling it now.