Thing To Do Today: be humble.

They say if you've got it, flaunt it.


I suppose it does mean that everyone will know exactly how wonderful you are* but it does also mean that everyone will hate you.


So let's be humble for a change. Wasn't it Oscar Wilde who said the English instinctively admire a man who can't do anything and is modest about it?
(Hang on, I must go and check that: memory like a...
...whoops, no, it was James Agate. And it was a man who has no talent.)


Ah well! I got that wrong, then. So here's a recipe for humble pie.


Get some umbles (dubious innardy bits of a deer), put them in some pastry, and cook until done.
If you've had to cook the pie on an open fire then it's proabably a good idea to throw away the pastry before eating.

All humble pie recipes which include spices, meat, dates or raisins aren't humble pies at all.
Though they are much more appetizing.


Thing To Do Today: be humble.  This word comes from the Latin humilis, which means low, from humus, which means the ground.


The humble in humble pie comes from numbles, which means deer offal, from the Latin lumbus, loin.
This word has changed its first letter twice. A numble became an umble because of false splitting, and then later umble became humble. This was partly because only humble (that is, poor) people ate them, and partly because everyone thought that the poor people were dropping their aitches.

*Very seldom an advantage.