# Croker Sacks **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 3, 2007, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/croker-sacks/394455 "2007-03-03T19:57:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2007, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/croker-sacks/394455/21 "2007-03-04T22:44:54Z")
[QUOTE=NinetyWt] Sorry about that. I had no idea where it came from, I had Googled for images of burlap sacks, and it was amongst them. [/QUOTE] I didn’t much think that was your picture. The kid looks sorta scared of something and I doubt it’s the croker sack. ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2007, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/croker-sacks/394455/22 "2007-03-04T23:03:41Z")
I’ll just get one of [these](http://www.cafepress.com/treeoctopus/) and it will make everything all better. Right? Note that some creatures are still permitted to harvest them: > [@](#): > > Q: Why are Sasquatch allowed to gather Tree Octopuses if the octopuses are endangered? > > A: No one allows a Sasquatch to do anything; they just do it. > > Sasquatch have been gathering Tree Octopuses since before Humans settled in their habitats. They form a symbiotic relationship. We value our limbs and don’t question this. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2007, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/croker-sacks/394455/23 "2007-03-04T23:07:08Z")
I’ve never heard of a croker sack, nor _seen_ a Kroger store. If you’re talking about what I think you are, I’d call it a burlap bag. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2007, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/croker-sacks/394455/24 "2007-03-04T23:10:06Z")
[QUOTE=NinetyWt] I’ll just get one of [these](http://www.cafepress.com/treeoctopus/) and it will make everything all better. Right? [/QUOTE] Yup. ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2007, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/croker-sacks/394455/25 "2007-03-05T02:04:00Z")
Gunny sack here. [QUOTE=Tuckerfan] I should like to point out that the pic you linked to shows the [harvesting of a threatened species.](http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/) [/QUOTE] That blows my mind. I would have thought that someone was pulling my leg. I wonder if that animal is what gave the Discovery Channel the idea for future evolution in the series “The Future is Wild”. They proposed the Swampus, a huge terrestrial octopus. [QUOTE=Pygmy Rugger] I remember using them to run a three legged race. Each person would put one leg in, and both would grab the top to hold it up. [/QUOTE] Are you sure you aren’t conflating the 3 legged race with the gunny sack race? We always tied the left leg from one person and the right leg for the other person in a 3 legged race. The gunny sack race was sticking both legs into a sack and hopping. ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2007, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/croker-sacks/394455/26 "2007-03-05T02:19:50Z")
Darryl Lict-- they used to be pretty common all through the Orcas Islands up through the BC coast. Part of the problem in the 19th century was the Kwakiutl potlatches, but now I don’t think we have much of an excuse anymore after they stopped modern harvesting. Probably toxins in the water. Sad to watch, just like the fate of the longhorse. . . ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2007, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/croker-sacks/394455/27 "2007-03-05T03:26:25Z")
Wouldn’t a good way to protect the tree octopi be popularising sasquatch fur and leather? ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2007, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/croker-sacks/394455/28 "2007-03-05T03:50:48Z")
[QUOTE=Lissla Lissar] Wouldn’t a good way to protect the tree octopi be popularising sasquatch fur and leather? [/QUOTE] The problem with that is that sasquatch have a strong musky smell. You’ve been around ferrets, right? Imagine a seven foot tall, three hundred pound ferret, and the smell would knock you out. I know that the smell of the tanning products is quite strong too, but there’s no telling if it would overcome the musk…or co-mingle. ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2007, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/croker-sacks/394455/29 "2007-03-05T06:27:10Z")
[QUOTE=Darryl Lict] Are you sure you aren’t conflating the 3 legged race with the gunny sack race? We always tied the left leg from one person and the right leg for the other person in a 3 legged race. The gunny sack race was sticking both legs into a sack and hopping. [/QUOTE] Ahh yes. We did the gunny sack race, too. But I remember using them for 3 legged races, also. ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2007, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/croker-sacks/394455/30 "2007-03-05T07:01:26Z")
[QUOTE=capybara] Darryl Lict-- they used to be pretty common all through the Orcas Islands up through the BC coast. . [/QUOTE] It would help if they weren’t so tasty. MM… tree octupiii … ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2007, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/croker-sacks/394455/31 "2007-03-05T07:23:00Z")
[QUOTE=NinetyWt] It would help if they weren’t so tasty. MM… tree octupiii … [/QUOTE] [Homer] Calamari on the tree branch. {drool}[/Homer] ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2007, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/croker-sacks/394455/32 "2007-03-05T08:15:00Z")
I think it would just be called a _sack_ here in the UK - or at least the default understanding of the word ‘sack’ would be a bag made from coarsely-woven cloth, perhaps with a drawstring. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2007, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/croker-sacks/394455/33 "2007-03-05T17:34:37Z")
Help fight my ignorance here – the tree octopus is fake, right? Sailboat ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2007, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/croker-sacks/394455/34 "2007-03-05T19:53:42Z")
_I’LL_ never tell. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Caridwen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c89c15/32.png) [@Caridwen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caridwen)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2007, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/croker-sacks/394455/35 "2007-03-05T20:01:17Z")
I’d say burlap bag. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2007, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/croker-sacks/394455/36 "2007-03-05T20:43:49Z")
I had heard “gunny sack,” but around here, it’s usually “burlap bag.” When I saw “croker sacks” in the title, I had never heard of it. However, amateur hunters often put frogs (croakers,) crawdads, and rabbits in a burlap bag, so I thought of frogs, not crocuses. There’s an ugly connection, too. When a dog breeder’s prize Blue Tick Coon Hound had a litter by the neighbor’s mongrel, some breeders would “sack” the puppies, tying them in a gunny sack and drowning them in the river. I often wondered if that’s why a worker is “sacked” when he’s fired. ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2007, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/croker-sacks/394455/37 "2007-03-05T20:53:55Z")
> [@AskNott](#): > > I often wondered if that’s why a worker is “sacked” when he’s fired. Apparently, maybe: From Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 1898: > [@](#): > > Sack. > > A bag. According to tradition, it was the last word uttered before the tongues were confounded at Babel. (Saxon, sæc; German, sack; Welsh, sach; Irish, sac; French, sac; Latin, saccus; Italian, sacco; Spanish, sáco; Greek, sakkos, Hebrew, sak; Swedish, sâck; etc., etc.) > 1 To get the sack or To give one the sack. To get discharged by one’s employer. Mechanics travelling in quest of work carried their implements in a bag or sack; when discharged, they received back the bag that they might replace in it their tools, and seek a job elsewhere. Workmen still often carry a bag of tools, but so much is done by machines that bags of tools are decreasing. > **2 The Sultan puts into a sack, and throws into the Bosphorus, any one of his harem he wishes out of the way.** > 3 There are many cognate phrases, as To give one the bag, and Get the bag, which is merely substitutional. To receive the canvas is a very old expression, referring to the substance of which the sack or bag was made. The French Trousser vos quilles (pack up your ninepins or toys) is another idea, similar to “Pack up your tatters and follow the drum.” (See CASHIER.) My bolding. Nuttin’ in there about tree octopii, though. ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2007, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/croker-sacks/394455/38 "2007-03-05T21:21:43Z")
Sailboat, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. Yes, Sailboat, there is a Pacific Tree Octopus. It exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. ---
**Author:** ![A.R.Cane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee7513/32.png) [@A.R.Cane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A.R.Cane)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2007, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/croker-sacks/394455/39 "2007-03-05T21:48:54Z")
How could you doubt the “People for the Ethical Treatment of Pumpkins”? ---
**Author:** ![CynicalGabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@CynicalGabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CynicalGabe)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2007, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/croker-sacks/394455/40 "2007-03-05T22:29:46Z")
[QUOTE=A.R. Cane] I grew up in NE Ohio. It was a “gunny sack”. [/QUOTE] Here in CA, a gunny sack refers to a burlap bag, about the size you would keep 50 lbs of chicken feed in. They are also useful for fighting brush fires. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/croker-sacks/394455.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/croker-sacks/394455.md?page=3)