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Phrase: Have egg on your face
In J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins gives Gollum a riddle.
A box without hinges, key, or lid, yet golden treasure inside is hid.
It took Gollum a few minutes to figure it out, but eventually, he got it.
The answer is eggs.
Eggs are beautiful things with a near-perfect design and packed with nutrients and vitamins.
They are a mainstay of traditional breakfasts, great to put on your plate or in your mouth.
You, however, would not like to have egg on your face.
To say that someone has egg on their face means that they look very foolish or have been left feeling embarrassed.
The expression probably originates from the habit of throwing food at bad actors on the stage.
Do you need an example?
Luckily, Carlos Ghosn, the hero of Nissan, gave us one just before the New Year.
Mr. Ghosn slipped out of Japan like a thief in the night, leaving Tokyo prosecutors with egg on their faces.
It was apparent from the moment of his arrest that they were suspicious of his power and wealth.
Why else would they have put such tight restrictions on his movements and imposed the largest-ever bail of around $9 million?
They didn’t, however, take the most straightforward option of putting a tracking device on his ankle.
In my opinion, this is the reason they have egg on their faces.
We have heard very little from the prosecutors or police about how Ghosn made his great escape.
Then again, perhaps they have said much, but we can’t hear them through all of that egg on their faces.
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
This post is understandable by someone with at least a 7th-grade education (age 12).
On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 74.
The higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100, the easier the passage is to read.