In J.R.R.
Tolkien's
The Hobbit, a riddle match ensues between
Gollum, formerly known as
Smeagol. In hopes of confounding the
Gollum creature,
Bilbo the hobbit produces a riddle, the answer to which is the
egg.
However, Bilbo's
hopes are crushed when
Gollum remembers his
Smeagol days and the way he used to
teach his grandmother how to suck eggs. What this interesting passage gives us is the evidence that sucking eggs is something taught by the grandchildren to teir grandmothers. One question it poses is this: Who taught the grandmother's grandmother how to
suck eggs? Or does it skip a generation?
Another interesting connotation is the fact that in Russian,
eggs and
balls are the same word. Sadly, i misplaced my
Russian translation of that book, so I cannot tell you how the interpreter worked around that one.
By request from mat_catastrophe, plus the fact that I have 6 nodes till level, and no ideas.