Dark Bilious Vapors

A while ago - I was surfing through my Dictionary of Idioms (I like dictionary's as well as books) looking for the origin of the expression "a short walk off a long pier" and while I didn't find that one, I found lots about PIE:

Just make sure you're not actually eating pie (or anything) when you read this...it's not too appetizing:

Eat Humble Pie: This expression is similar to 'eat crow" but comes from medieval times, when there really was a pie called umble or numble pie. Umbles were the heart, liver, entrails of deers and other animals...only servant ate pies made out of animals' guts.

[If you EVER see any pies like this...RUN in the opposite direction!!]

"Umble" was changed to"humble" which means lowly or meek, by the early 1800 the expression "eat humble pie" had come to mean profusely appolgizing for a humiliating error.

Finger In every Pie: The image that possibly created this expression might be of a person who can't decide what pie he or she wants - blueberry, pecan, peach - so they stick a finger in Every Pie to get a Taste of Each. [Uhhh...I would prefer not have known this myself.]

Think of each "pie" as a different activity or project, and when you put your finger into this "pie" you have an interest or responsibility for that activity. [Sure...and you have a sticky, gross, pie covered finger too!!!]

Thus, to have a finger in every pie means to have a part in something, to be involved in many matters, businesses and activities.

[Right...And who wants to EAT any of those pies NOW - I want to know??]

Karen on 07.24.05 @ 11:54 AM CST