Crumb (pronounced kruhm)
(1) A
small particle of bread, cake, biscuit etc that has broken off.
(2) A
small particle or portion of anything; fragment; bit.
(3) The
soft inner portion of a bread, as distinguished from the crust (archaic).
(4) In
the plural crumbs, a cake topping made of sugar, flour, butter, and spice,
usually crumbled on top of the raw batter and baked with the cake.
(5) In
slang, a nobody; a contemptibly objectionable or worthless person (rare).
(6) In
cooking, to dress, coat or prepare with crumbs or to remove crumbs from
(literally to de-crumb).
(7) To
break into crumbs or small fragments.
(8) In
the industrial production of food, a mixture of sugar, cocoa and milk, used to
make bulk cooking chocolate.
(9) In
(predominately historic military) slang, a body louse (Pediculus humanus).
Pre 1000:
From the Middle English crome, cromme,
crumme & crume, from the Old
English cruma (crumb, fragment), from
the Proto-Germanic krumô & krūmô (fragment, crumb), from the
primitive Indo-European grū-mo-
(something scraped together, lumber, junk; to claw, scratch), from ger- (to turn, bend, twist, wind). It was cognate with the Dutch kruim (crumb), the Low German Krome & Krume (crumb), the Middle High German krūme & German Krume
(crumb), the Danish krumme (crumb), the
Swedish dialectal krumma (crumb)
& the Swedish inkråm (crumbs,
giblets), the Icelandic krumur
(crumb), the Latin grūmus (a little
heap (usually of earth) and the Ancient Greek grumea (from ψιχίον (psichion))
(bag or chest for old clothes).
The un-etymological
-b- appeared in the mid-fifteenth century as in limb & climb to match
crumble and words like dumb, numb & thumb although there may also have been
the influence of French words like humble (where it makes sense, unlike in in
English where it’s just silly given crumb should be spelled “crum” or “krum”. The slang meaning "lousy person" dates
from 1918, linked to US troops who had picked up crumb as a word to describe
the body-louses well known in the trenches on the Western Front in France. The use to refer to louses, base on the resemblance,
was from another war, attested from 1863 during the US Civil War. The obsolete alternative spelling was the dialectal
crimb. Crumb, crumbling, crumbler, crumbling & crumble are nouns & verbs, crumbled is a verb, crumbly is a noun & adjective and crumbable is an adjective; the noun plural is crumbs.
The
adjective crummy dates from the 1560s in the sense of “easily crumbled" but
within a decade had come also to mean "like bread", the slang
adoption of which to suggest "shoddy, filthy, inferior, poorly made"
in use by 1859, either from the earlier sense or influenced by the more recent
used to refer to the louse. In one
curiosity thought probably related to the resemblance to certain loaves of
bread, crummy was briefly (although dialectical use did persist) used in the
eighteenth century to describe a woman, "attractively plump, full-figured,
buxom" although any link with Robert Crumb’s later work Stormy Daniels is mere coincidence. The related forms are crummily & crumminess. The adjective crumby (full of crumbs) is from
1731 and while it overlapped with crummy, it seems almost always to have been
applied literally.
The
verb crumble is from the late-fifteenth century kremelen (to break into small fragments (transitive)), from the Old
English crymelan, thought to be the frequentative
of gecrymman (to break into crumbs), from
cruma; the intransitive sense of
"fall into small pieces" dating from the 1570s. As a noun, crumb has meant "a
fragment" at least since the 1570s but as a cake or dessert-topping (made
of sugar, flour, butter, and spice, usually crumbled on top of the raw batter
and baked with the dish), the first known reference is in English newspapers in
1944, one of the techniques recommended as a culinary innovation during the
wartime food rationing, the best remembered of which is the vegetarian “Woolton
Pie”, named after Lord Woolton (1883-1964; UK Minister of Food 1940-1943)
Robert
Crumb (b 1943) is an US cartoonist, associated since the 1960s with the counter-culture
and some strains of libertarianism; he was one of the most identifiable figures
of the quasi-underground comix movement.
There is a genre-description of the long-typical women in his work as
“Crumb women” based on the depiction of the physical characteristics he most
admired although, for reasons he’s widely discussed, he no longer feels the
need to draw women in that manner. He
still draws women but the work is now more literally representational, his
portrait of pornographic actress & director Stormy Daniels (Stephanie Gregory Clifford; b
1979) a more sympathetic interpretation than Donald Trump's (b 1946; US president 2017-2021) ungracious description of her
as “horse face”. Really, President Trump should be more respectful towards a three-time winner of F.A.M.E.'s (Fans of Adult Media and Entertainment) much coveted annual "Favorite Breasts" Award.
Handed
down on Tuesday 30 November 2021, Set the
Standard is a report by sex discrimination commissioner Kate Jenkins (b 1968)
on behalf of the Human Rights Commission, exploring bullying, sexual harassment
and sexual assault experienced by those working in commonwealth parliamentary
workplaces in Australia. The report
recommends (1) codes of conduct which should apply to both parliamentarians and
their staff and (2) standards of conduct within the parliamentary space. The printed version includes evidence from
some seventeen hundred individuals, including almost 150 current
or former parliamentarians and some 900 current or former staffers. At this time, it appears the only restriction
placed on politician’s behavior is the so-called “bonk-ban”, the proscription
of ministers and their staff enjoying sex together, a thing imposed in the wake
of the revelation of Barnaby Joyce's (b 1967; thrice (between local difficulties) deputy prime-minister of Australia 2016-2022) adulterous affair
with the taxpayer-funded help. The way
around that is apparently for ministers to arrange staff-swaps with other offices
because the bonk-ban doesn’t extend to sex with other people’s staff and it’ll
be fun to see what tricks and techniques are adopted as work-arounds to avoid what
little will be done between the three months it takes for the Jenkins’ report to
work its way through the system and the following three weeks it takes to forget about it. The politicians like things the way they are;
expect more of the same.
Although it didn’t make it into the report, one group of enablers of poor conduct subsequently identified were the “crumb ladies”, the female politicians who are doughty defenders of the predatory male politicians who are the perpetrators of abuse inflicted on women, the reference to crumbs being the pathetic and insignificant rewards tossed their way by the male establishment who divide the spoils of office mostly among themselves. While the men enjoy the important jobs, the most lucrative perks and the best travel to civilized spots, the "crumb ladies", knowing their place and toeing the line, might pick up the odd appointment as an "assistant something" or a holiday (disguised as a study trip) to somewhere where (usually) it’s safe to drink the water. The existence of the parliament’s “crumb ladies” alludes to the use of crumbs as a device in the New Testament. Crumbs which fall from the table appear in an increasing number of translations and of particular theological interest are Matthew 15:27 and Mark 7:28. However, the best illustration in this context is probably Luke 16:21: "...and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table".
Lindsay Lohan MH Crumble Cake #'d Tobacco cards 462 (left) & 463 (right).
All crumble recipes are forks of apple crumble and the same instructions can be used with just about any combinations of fruit. Crumbles can be assemble to emphasize tartness, sweetness or a blend of the two. Among the favorites to mix and match are rhubarb, apple, pineapple, apricot, peach, boysenberry, & strawberry. The extent of the sweetness can further be enhanced by adding more sugar (brown sugar is recommended) although many prefer to use honey.
Core Ingredients
450g rhubarb, cut into 1 inch (25 mm) slices.
350g apples (Granny Smith recommended),
peeled and cut into 1 inch (25 mm) chunks.
1 vanilla pod, split open (or 1 teaspoon of
vanilla paste or extract).
120g golden caster sugar.
Ice cream, custard or thickened cream (as
preferred) to serve.
Topping Ingredients
200g plain flour.
1 tsp ground ginger (optional).
100g cold salted butter, chopped.
70g light soft brown sugar
Instructions
(1) Pre-heat oven to 200oC / 390oF (180oC / 360oF if fan forced).
(2) Place rhubarb, apples, vanilla and sugar together in an ovenproof dish and toss to ensure vanilla & sugar coating is consistent.
Roast for 10 minutes.
(4) Place flour in a large bowl, mixing in ginger if it’s being used. Using fingertips, rub in butter to create a chunky breadcrumb-like textured mixture.
(5) When texture is achieved, stir through the sugar (creating the crumble).
(6) Sprinkle crumble topping onto the fruit and cook for a further 30-35 minutes or until the topping is a light, golden brown.
(7) Serve with ice cream, custard or thickened cream as preferred.
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