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We Poll the Populace: 'What is a Poke?'
What we told them: A poke is not much, actually. A friendly way of saying hi, an online method of flirting, or even a prelude to a threat. The problem with pokes is that, five years after Facebook launched, we don't know the proper response. A poke back, and then back again, threatening to evolve into a never-ending poke war? Ignore it and let it fester on our home page? Delete the poke and get on with our life? The best advice is, just confront it head on, and send a message, "Hey, (no) thanks for the poke." We have complicated thoughts on the complex matter, so we took to the streets to see if the New York public could more adequately tell us what exactly the elusive poke was. Check out the video after the break.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Stanley R Stewart said 5:30PM on 12-16-2009
A " poke " is a bag.
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linda said 7:00PM on 12-16-2009
pig in a poke right on
pj4228 said 4:34PM on 12-17-2009
Stanley----You are absolutely correct. I was born in West Virginia, and when I grew up, we always said "poke" meaning bag.
rockinchair4099 said 4:15PM on 12-18-2009
Stewart is right. My Grandother would say 'Go fetch me a paper poke! or a cloth poke. It is the act of putting something into. or the motion of :. You poke it in a bag, paper sack, bucket;etc. Being 81 years young, I still use the word poke around my kids, Grand kids and Great Grand kids. They laugh and I have to explain what poke means. I think it was derived from the word poker, as used to poke the burning wood in a fire place or outdoor wash pot, when boiling work clothes to get them clean or oiling down hog fat to render the LARD out. As a small boy 8 to 10 years old, that was my job to keep the fires poked under the wash pot and/or add fire wood.
C .P. said 6:14PM on 12-18-2009
again, who cares?
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Cassie said 9:37PM on 7-26-2010
You cared or you wouldn't have opened it to read....
CANDIMIKE said 7:37PM on 12-16-2009
Stanley you beat me to it, but to expand, a "poke" is an old world word for bag, and the term to buy a "pig in a poke" that is to buy something without looking first and risk being tricked into buying something worthless comes from the old world trick of doing just that. Dishonest merchants back when would put, back then, realitivly worthless cats in bags, i.e. "pokes" and try to sell them off as pigs. Then try to skip off before getting caught, of course, if the trick didn't work "the cat was let out of the bag".
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jon Joseph said 8:07PM on 12-16-2009
isn't a poke a little black hockey ball they bat around with hockey sticks
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RESCUEEIGHT said 4:35PM on 12-17-2009
That is a puck, believe I know, state of ice I am, MN.
callgirl235 said 9:17AM on 6-01-2010
LOL that was funny and cute, I bet you knew it is a puck on the ice.......
Geegee Davis said 2:57PM on 6-01-2010
No, that is a puck... Can you remember that..?? a PUCK. Or don't you give a flying puck???
RichFromTampa said 12:08AM on 12-17-2009
A "poke" was what Gus & the other Lonesome Dove cowboys referred to as Screwing Laurie, the town whore. As in, "How about a poke, Laurie darlin' " RichFromTampa
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skrdenver said 12:56AM on 12-17-2009
A "poke" is a small grocery bag...at least in W.Va.
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Ewinjones1031 said 3:42AM on 12-17-2009
A "poke" is either a burlap sack, a jab in the ribs or a wild plant that is kind of like spinach.....all this is according to Southern talk.
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bb0507 said 2:24PM on 12-26-2009
oh bummer. i thought this article had to do with pokies. when a woman gets cold and just has to say HELLO!
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hunkules1 said 12:25PM on 12-17-2009
To understand the true definition of the word "Poke", one only has to be familiar with the famous movie series "Lonesome Dove".
Another old definition of "Poke" was the money you had hid away for a rainy day.
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Jennifer Lopez said 2:00PM on 12-17-2009
At the college I went to, it was everyone's understanding that if you poked somebody, that meant that you wanted to have sex with them. I'm not even joking.
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joeywheeler5429 said 11:35AM on 12-18-2009
a Poke is a Mon
pokemon XD lol rofl lmao
don't flame me i just try to be funny
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mooreisen said 4:16PM on 12-17-2009
well poke me......
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sumersetsam said 4:16PM on 12-17-2009
a poke is a poke, if you know what i mean
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