Scattered from here to breakfast

Posted by ESC on September 04, 2002

In Reply to: "From here to breakfast" posted by ESC on September 04, 2002

: : Has anybody ever heard this expression? The sentence is, "Here is a resource scattered from here to breakfast...." origin, meanings...??? Thanks

: I've heard: From HELL to breakfast.

SCATTERED FROM HERE TO BREAKFAST - "Scattered over a great distance. 'The kids are all grown.Scattered from here to breakfast and all doing all right.'' (Jack Schaefer, 'The Kean Land,' 1953). From the "Happy Trails: Western Words and Sayings" section of the Facts on File Dictionary of American Regionalisms by Robert Hendrickson (Facts on File, New York, 2000).

My guess is that it refers to cattle who are scattered so far that it will take all night and until breakfast the next day to round them up.

I was mixing up this phrase with:

HELL-BENT FOR BREAKFAST - "Very fast. 'I was going lickety-spilt, hell-bent for breakfast, trying to head off a gotch-earred brown stallion and his bunch.' (J. Frank Dobie, 'Coronado's Children,' 1931). Also from "Happy Trails."

• From hell to breakfast R. Berg 09/05/02
  • From hell to breakfast ESC 09/05/02