The crow has long been a part of man's history. More than any other bird,
the crow has been both denounced and praised. Some have feared it as a messenger of evil. To the farmer,
the crow is a hungry robber who swoops down to eat his corn shoots.
Most people, however, see the crow as a big noisy troublesome bird. It is easy,
then, to understand how the crow got its name into the language.
Any person who talks loudly about himself or his deeds, is said "to crow about himself " This meaning of the word came from Old English or French.
But there is a saying about the crow in America that is different.
And that is this: When a person says something in a loud and boastful way and later must admit he is wrong,
he is said to be eating crow.
No one knows how this saying got started,
but one story about it appeared in a Louisiana newspaper in 1851:
A man who owned a boarding house served poor food,
and his customers complained about it.
One day they complained so loudly that the owner of the house laughed at them and said, "Why, I can eat anything and enjoy it!"
Some decided to test him. They killed a large crow, and cooked it and made it look nice.
Secretly, however, they added hot pepper, snuff, and salt.
They put the tasty-looking dish before the owner and invited him to eat.
The owner took a big bite out of the crow, but it was horrible. He pushed the dish away from him,
and said, "Yes, I can eat crow, but I'll be damned if 1 like it."
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