Sucking Eggs?

[wnjxc21]

Recently I decided to take a trip up to the local woodlands around our area, I set off with my king charles spaniel,Sampras (so called, after tennis ace pete) and small hamper for a quiet lunch in the woods.

Not long after arriiviing I settled down on a tree stump,a very large old thing! must have been 200 years old!

Whiilst enjoying my homemade coleslaw ( i like to make my own as i'm very picky when it comes to coleslaw)

I saw a small squirrel making a dash for my hamper,this got sampras very exciited...so much so that he jumped up and knocked me over!! ouch!

When i got up i saw that the squirrel had made off with an almond from a slice of cake I had taken, I turned to Sampras only to find that he had gotten the scoth egg from the basket!

He wasn't eating the outside, he just chewed that off and he was licking the yolk,

It reminded me off the phrase which goes something like 'teach your grandma to suck eggs'

What is this phrase and where did it come from?

[mike42]

i think it goes dont try teach your mother how to suck eggs e.g. akin to dont try teach an old dog new ticks.

[chakka35]

Dental care in the olden days was non-existent, so older people would have no teeth at all. An easy way for such a person to get a fair amount of protein was to put a small hole at each end of an egg and suck out the contents. Presumably the saying came from the fact that grandmas were so adept at this that to presume to teach them was insulting.

[Quizmonster]

Click here for some historical background on the saying.

[isj032]

Sometimes a monologue is just what Ineed, after eggs... Or was it before? I'll say!

[mike_jln]

flippin 'eck ! did you get anything left from your lunch to eat yourself ! think i'll join you for lunch next time, more exciting than my boring lunches

;-)

[lankeela]

mike42 - new ticks??? Shouldn't let your old dog get them!