Date:  Sun, 18 Jan 1998 14:13:32 -0500
From:  Gerald Cohen <gcohen[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UMR.EDU>
Subject: "shake and bake" (=explosives)

   Paul Dickson's _War Slang_ presents "shake and bake" as a verb: "to
employ a mixture of weapons in an attack." The expression arose during the
Gulf War.

   But he does not mention the noun "shake and bake" in the meanng
"explosives." I found this usage in the _St Louis Post-Dispatch_ , Dec.
24, 1997, sec. A, p.6/4. The article (which starts on p.1) concerns the
Oklahoma bomber, Tim McVeigh, who had fought in the Gulf War, and the
relevant paragraph for us refers to the wife of McVeigh's friend, Terry
Nichols:
   'She also recalled that Nichols received a cryptic letter from McVeigh
the weekend before the
   bombing, in which McVeigh referred to "shake and bake," a military
term for explosives.'

  I assume that "shake and bake" refers to bombs that destroy via their
explosive force ("shake") and to incendiary bombs ("bake"). Incendiary
bombs were use in World War 2. Were they also used in the Gulf War?

--Gerald Cohen

gcohen[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]umr.edu