where does the phrase it's all gone pear shaped come from
Pear-shaped The third meaning is mostly limited[citation needed] to the United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa and Australasia. It describes a situation that went awry, perhaps horribly wrong. A failed bank robbery, for example, could be said to have "gone pear-shaped". The origin for this use of the term is in dispute. The OED cites its origin as within the Royal Air Force as a cleaned-up alternative version of its phrase " tits-up" meaning completely broken or dead; as of 2003 the earliest citation there is a quote in the 1983 book Air War South Atlantic.[1]
Whoopie pie Pennsylvania, Maine, Massachusetts, Virginia and New Hampshire all claim to be the birthplace of the whoopie pie. The Pennsylvania Dutch Convention & Visitors Bureau[9] notes that the whoopie pie recipe comes from the area's Amish and Pennsylvania German culture—origins that are unlikely to leave an official paper trail—and has been handed down through generations.[10] Labadie's Bakery in Lewiston, Maine has been making the confection since 1925.[11] The now-defunct Berwick Cake Company of Roxbury, Massachusetts was selling "Whoopee Pies" as early as the 1920s, but officially branded the Whoopee Pie in 1928 to great success. Various claims suggest that the whoopie pie originated in Massachusetts and spread both north and south,[12] or that German immigrants in Pennsylvania[13] brought the predecessor of the whoopie pie to communities throughout the northeast.[14] A clue into how the possibly Amish dessert got to be so popular in New England can be found in a 1930s cookbook called Yummy Book by the Durkee Mower Company, the manufacturer of Marshmallow Fluff. In this New England cookbook, a recipe for "Amish Whoopie Pie" was featured using Marshmallow Fluff in the filling.[15]