There was an article in the Chicago Tribune today, reminiscing about this time of the year in 1944 during WWII. They mentioned Brig. General A.C. McAuliffe's message to the German commander after the Germans asked for the Americans to surrender the encircled town of Bastogne. The American General responded: 22 December 1944, To the German Commander: "NUTS!" The American Commander,

When the military staff brought the message to McAuliffe, he said, "Us surrender? Oh, nuts." The staff discussed how to answer them, and one staffer said, "Well, what you first said would be hard to beat, sir." Everyone started nodding and laughing, and McAuliffe picked up his pen and wrote the blunt message.

Apparently the Germans didn't know what to make of the message, but the Americans knew that it epitomized, "That's ridiculous to think we would surrender to you!" And the Germans figured it out.

The strength of a word!

Since "stun" is "nuts" spelled backwards," he stunned the Germans with his nuts!

I think it is funny because not that many people say "Nuts!" these days.

It's making a resurgence as a poker term, meaning "the best possible". "The Nuts(nuts?)" is the best possible hand, "nut flush" is the best possible flush, etc. Weird variations exist where two people can have the "nut straight", but one of them is also drawing to a flush, meaning that their "nut straight" is the "pure nuts".