'ben johnson' night

by Curious
(London, UK)

Q: Hi there. We have a debate raging here in the UK about the term 'ben johnson night'. We all agree that this term was often used by our parents/grandparents to describe food cooked up when money was tight or cupboards were nearly bare. However, there is some suggestion that the name is linked to the disgraced sprinter Ben Johnson. This can not be correct as the term has been around a lot longer than Ben Johnson the sprinter.

Any idea?

A: Ben Johnson night/day is every Thursday in Jamaica when food is scanty in the house. This is a time when everyone eagerly awaits payday to do the Friday supermarket shopping and the Saturday market shopping.

On that day/night we jamaicans look about what we can find around the house for food...which is usually not much.

It has nothing to do with Ben Johnson the sprinter, because it was around way before his time.

However, some people acutally associate with him because he was a such a fast sprinter who actually finishes his races so quickly. In a sense, it is kind of related to the scantiness of food on Thursdays since it seems to finish so quickly (one day before payday).

Hope this helps.