Soup to nuts

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Will - 10 Jan 2007 17:36 GMT

Reading Lionel Shriver's (crazy name, crazy gal - have you seen her on
"Late Review" (BBC2, Friday, 2300) with her gloves on indoors) novel
"We Need to Talk about Kevin", I was struck by the following sentence:

"For some reason I imagine it will reassure you that I still get the
Times. But I seem to have misplaced the grid I once imposed on it ....
Arbitrarily, I either devour the paper soup to nuts ..."

Shriver is an American who lives at least some of the time in Britain,
and the book (I'm about half way through) contains little in the way of
"gottens" and other forms that signal an American author. That is why
the expression "soup to nuts", with which I am entirely unfamiliar,
leapt out and biffed me on the eyeballs. Wikigoogle explains what it
means, but I can't see myself ever using it, when there exists
"beginning to end" to describe exactly the same thing.

It's a roaring good read, by the way, provided you like your
protagonists dysfunctional.

Will.

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Salvatore Volatile - 10 Jan 2007 18:35 GMT

> Reading Lionel Shriver's (crazy name, crazy gal - have you seen her on
> "Late Review" (BBC2, Friday, 2300) with her gloves on indoors) novel
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
> means, but I can't see myself ever using it, when there exists
> "beginning to end" to describe exactly the same thing.

I wasn't too conscious of "soup to nuts" before reading, in my 7th grade
Latin textbook, that _ab ovo usque ad mala_ (lit., "from the egg to the
apples") meant "soup to nuts".

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Salvatore Volatile

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R H Draney - 10 Jan 2007 19:47 GMT

Will filted:

>It's a roaring good read, by the way, provided you like your
>protagonists dysfunctional.

If you like your protagonists, and everyone else for that matter, dysfunctional,
allow me to recommend Poul Anderson....r

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"Keep your eye on the Bishop. I want to know when
he makes his move", said the Inspector, obliquely.

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Don Phillipson - 10 Jan 2007 20:12 GMT

> the expression "soup to nuts", with which I am entirely unfamiliar,
> leapt out and biffed me on the eyeballs. Wikigoogle explains what it
> means, but I can't see myself ever using it, when there exists
> "beginning to end" to describe exactly the same thing.

Many of us feel like this when we encounter a metaphor
for the first time -- and "soup to nuts" is a metaphor when
describing anything other than a meal. If you shun all
metaphors, however, I do not see how print can leap out
and biff on the eye.

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Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

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Amethyst Deceiver - 11 Jan 2007 11:13 GMT

> Shriver is an American who lives at least some of the time in Britain,
> and the book (I'm about half way through) contains little in the way
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> explains what it means, but I can't see myself ever using it, when
> there exists "beginning to end" to describe exactly the same thing.

Goodness. Time to stop using "from start to finish" and "from A to Z",
then.

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Linz
Wet Yorks via Cambridge, York, London and Watford
My accent may vary

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Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2007

Soup to nuts