"can of corn" (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill CIV (US)]

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

I always understood it as follows:

In old grocery stores, canned goods would be on shelves that reached higher than the grocer could reach. He'd use a stick with a hook to pull a can of corn off an 8 foot high shelf, and it would drop into his hands for an easy catch.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
> Behalf Of Charles C Doyle
> Sent: Thursday, August 21, 2014 4:32 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: "can of corn"
> 
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header ---------------
> --------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> Subject:      "can of corn"
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
> 
> The expression "can of corn" in the sense of 'easy task' (or, as we
> might s= ay, "piece of cake") has been familiar to me for some decades,
> though I had= n't heard it in a while till last night's telecast of the
> Atlanta Braves vs= . Pittsburgh Pirates baseball game.  Chip Caray
> remarked, about an easily-c= aught high fly ball to center field,
> "That's a can of corn for BJ Upton."= =0A= =0A= The expression is
> absent from HDAS. (I lack access to DARE and other refere= nce works,
> presently.) I wonder what the image originally imported . . . . = =0A=
> =0A= Charlie=
> 
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

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