cigarette packs have not been blank on the back since the commenter has been alive
reply> is it impossible to imagine no one, ever, using a cigarette pack to jot something down?
replyWouldn't the back have printing on it? I could imagine someone ripping the pack open and writing on the insides, which are blank.
In quite a few countries they were rather blank, not like today!
replyI don't know what cigarette packaging looked like at the time, but can imagine they were possibly government provided in a very simple paper package.
reply> Really, though, is it impossible to imagine no one, ever, using a cigarette pack to jot something down? It's a colloquialism. It doesn't even have to be taken literally to make sense. What is gained by questioning it on that level?
replyI took the OP's question to really be a question about the origin of that phrase, and with your answer, I learned something I didn't know before. So I, for one, am happy the question was asked.
I'm glad it was asked too and enjoyed the answer.
replyThe OP's question was clearly skeptical though:
---
napkins, and envelopes at least kind of make sense.
Who was ever writing on the back of cigarette packs?
---
Implication being that writing on the back of cig packs does not make sense. I'd agree with your reading if not for the "at least kind of make sense" bit.
My father taught me times tables, each one written on the back of a fag packet, in 1972. And we used matches for addition and multiplication before that.
replyBike shedding.
reply