I remember firework lighters, and by that name. Common belief was they were made of camel dung. Seems unlikely now but who knows? I don't doubt Debbie Harry was using the word in the sense that enraged your friend. British schoolboys used to use the f-word to refer to lower grade students who'd do things for the higher grade students for a shilling, usually go buy cigarettes. My mother use to refer to tiresome tasks that way "it's an awful f-word" meaning "it's an awful long way to the shops just to get a pack of cigarettes when I don't even smoke."Reddog wrote: ↑Wed Aug 04, 2021 10:54 pm Once in a bar, drinking with a friend at that time. We were kidding and I called him something I thought was totally innocent, basically in my mind it was a grade school taunt. It’s at the end of one of Dirty Harry’s quotes asking if the kid felt lucky. It’s also used (at least in my geographic area) to describe an unscented, slow-burning stick to light fireworks. Which reminds me of a British term for burning ember, or cigarette, (starts with “F”)
