Americans have lots of colorful phrases and sayings to specify a point—but often, although we know the point, we don't know beans about the origins of the saying. To find out, True West went hell-bent for election. It took a month of Sundays, but we got some answers. So let's talk turkey.
To know beans: This is a negative, that one is appallingly ignorant or wholly unacquainted with the subject under discussion. William Walsh's “Handy-Book of Literary Curiosities” suggests it came from
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