Once there was a very hungry crow who found a pile of cow manure. He was so pleased as filled himself with the pieces of corn he picked from the pile. But he was so hungry that he forgot to stop eating when he had had his fill and was unable to fly away. Eyeing the shovel that was anchored in the pile, he climbed to the top of the shovel and flew off the handle, immediately dropping to the ground, dead.
The moral of the story? Don't fly off the handle when you're full of sh...t!
A favorite tale for both Grandpa Peter as well as Arppie, the moral made sense back in the thirties and forties and even earlier in a more rural society; as far back as 1843, the expression "fly off the handle" was first seen in print.
Interesting..I have of course heard the expression, but never thought about what it literally meant. I guess I just was thinking it had something to do with "losing one's grip" on a handle.
ReplyDeleteIs that where the expression, "You're full of it!" comes from?
ReplyDelete