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Curate's Egg

Posted by ESC on June 10, 2000

In Reply to: Origin of Curates Egg posted by Tony on June 10, 2000

: Origin of The Curates Egg

CURATE'S EGG - "Something which is part good, part bad; a mixed bag. The expression comes from a 19th-century cartoon in the British humor magazine 'Punch': A nervous young curate (in Britain, a junior-grade clergyman who is usually an assistant to a more senior member of the clergy) is served a bad egg while a guest at his bishop's breakfast table. Asked whether the egg is to his liking, he stammers: 'Parts of it are excellent!" From "Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Allusions" by Elizabeth Webber and Mike Feinsilber (Merriam-Webster, Springfield, Mass., 1999).

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