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Origin of a saying
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Where does the saying 'teaching my granny to suck eggs' come from?
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As back-up, on Saturday 14th April 2007, in the TV programme Born Survivor, Bear Grylls did his usual survival thing, this time in a desert in the USA. He has to find food, water and shelter with just a knife and a flint. On this occasion, he climbed up the wall of a ravine to find a bird's nest. There were two eggs in it and - for immediate sustenance - he rapped the shell of one on his lower teeth to open it and then sucked out the contents. Presumably in past times, grannies did much the same thing...though without necessarily scaling a cliff first!
So, maybe the saying nowadays should be, "Don't teach an ex-SAS man to suck eggs!"
As back-up, on Saturday 14th April 2007, in the TV programme Born Survivor, Bear Grylls did his usual survival thing, this time in a desert in the USA. He has to find food, water and shelter with just a knife and a flint. On this occasion, he climbed up the wall of a ravine to find a bird's nest. There were two eggs in it and - for immediate sustenance - he rapped the shell of one on his lower teeth to open it and then sucked out the contents. Presumably in past times, grannies did much the same thing...though without necessarily scaling a cliff first!
So, maybe the saying nowadays should be, "Don't teach an ex-SAS man to suck eggs!"
[unnecessary teaching] preach to the wise, teach one's grandmother to suck eggs, teach granny to suck eggs; preach to the converted.
"Teach your grandmother to suck eggs, Rhiannon
Moore! I learned at a master's feet; even I could not recognize
Holmes in one of his clever disguises unless he allowed it."
The phrase "teaching granny to suck eggs" would be completely impenetrable to most people who did not grow up in the UK (or a Commonwealth country.) It's almost as impenetrable as "Bob's your uncle!" (another UK phrase that every Brit knows and no-one else does.)
For the uninitiated, "Teaching your grandmaoher to suck eggs" means (approximately) trying to give advice to someone who is an expert and knows much more than you do.
http://davidmaister.com/blog/285/
"Teach your grandmother to suck eggs, Rhiannon
Moore! I learned at a master's feet; even I could not recognize
Holmes in one of his clever disguises unless he allowed it."
The phrase "teaching granny to suck eggs" would be completely impenetrable to most people who did not grow up in the UK (or a Commonwealth country.) It's almost as impenetrable as "Bob's your uncle!" (another UK phrase that every Brit knows and no-one else does.)
For the uninitiated, "Teaching your grandmaoher to suck eggs" means (approximately) trying to give advice to someone who is an expert and knows much more than you do.
http://davidmaister.com/blog/285/
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