Nutty as a Fruitcake

To be “nuts” is to be crazy. The head, often referred to as one’s nut, is the locus of sanity. If it if cracked — if one has become cracked — then one has turned into a “nutter.” Mental institutions are known as “nuthouses” accordingly. To be described as a “fruitcake” means to be nutty — crazy. Fruitcakes traditionally have lots of nuts in them, hence the term.

Although fruitcakes are as old as time, using them to refer to crazy people only dates back to 1952.

Budget Saving Meals Cookbook, Ideals Publishing, 1980

Also from this book: Purple Haze, Fear and Loathing in Safeways

Cheesy Nuts

 If you attend a party this hostess is throwing, and have an allergy to nuts, you’re shit out of luck.

Nothing says “Spread the germs I care” more than food that has required much handling. If you’re too busy to make this yourself, perhaps you could rope the children in to do it for you: just give each toddler a lump of cheese and a box of nuts and tell them to cram as much in as possible. You could even offer prizes as an incentive: Best Porcupine or Best Tree, for example. Or Most Likely to Succeed.

Hors d’Oeuvre’s, Lane Publishing Co., 1976

Also from this book: Eggs, A Sticky Situation