A is for apples

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Advent is here, and here comes my advent calendar, based on the alphabet and my favorite sayings.

“An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” This seems to be based on the olde English saying, “Ate an apfel avore gwain to bed, make the doctor beg his bread.”

“It’s as American as apple pie.” Did you know that when we speak of the “upper crust” of society, or rich folks, that is actually a term connected to apple pie?  Since apples were cheap, but lard or butter were expensive, people would save on the crust and just make an open pie. If you could afford the upper crust, well, that’s what you were. (source) A second possible explanation is that in a traditional manor house oven, the bottom crust of a pie might have been burnt, but the top would be perfect, so the bottom was for the servants, while the top was for the masters. (source)

Comments

2 Responses

  1. Ah brilliant, i think i told you already how much i like alphabets.
    Funny that you say (elsewhere) that you haven’t “advented” for a while – i always associate Germany with great advent calendars, so much more than a box of chocolates.
    And sayings/quotations! Great!
    I think i told you about my alphabet show – the main prop was a filing cabinet and the idea was that everything in the show – including my partner – would come out of the cabinet and that we would do something for every letter.
    Q was – quotes and we created a dialogue composed of quotations from other people.

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