# Hell in a Handbasket
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-in-a-handbasket/88326
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [October 19, 2001, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-in-a-handbasket/88326 "2001-10-19T00:16:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@taxxman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/taxxman)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2001, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-in-a-handbasket/88326/1 "2001-10-19T00:16:57Z")
I’m so glad I found this site!
I searched for Hell in a Handbasket and found it used in a discussion of something quite different, which passed the odd few minutes of serendipity, but does anyone know where the expression originated.
My regular sources don’t help.
It’s North American, I think – a hidden quote from a now unknown classic?
I look forward to dipping in regularly for serious talk about fripperies and flimflam
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### Author:  [@Cargogal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cargogal)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2001, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-in-a-handbasket/88326/2 "2001-10-19T00:21:21Z")
The sources I’ve seen say the only good rationale is that things can be carried easily and swiftly in a handbasket - and that it may have originally had a divine connotation. Hell in a handbasket therefore refers to a swift and easy journey there.
[One such source](http://www.wordorigins.org/wordorh.htm#Hell%20in%20a%20Handbasket)
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### Author:  [@Cargogal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cargogal)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2001, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-in-a-handbasket/88326/3 "2001-10-19T00:22:44Z")
You guys don’t speak HTML? Sheesh!
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### Author:  [@Mudshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mudshark)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2001, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-in-a-handbasket/88326/4 "2001-10-19T00:37:22Z")
I’ve always said “To Hell in a shopping cart”, never a handbasket. Maybe shopping carts are faster.
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### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2001, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-in-a-handbasket/88326/5 "2001-10-19T00:43:44Z")
link fixed
[Hell in a Handbasket](http://www.wordorigins.org/wordorh.htm#Hell%20in%20a%20Handbasket)
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### Author:  [@Dale\_The\_Bold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_The_Bold)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2001, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-in-a-handbasket/88326/6 "2001-10-19T04:24:31Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Cargogal \*
> \*\*You guys don’t speak HTML? Sheesh! \*\*
You know there _is_ a preview button. Geez, the whole internet is going to hell in some fast manner, the specifics of which I do not know.
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### Author:  [@Anachronism](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anachronism)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2001, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-in-a-handbasket/88326/7 "2001-10-19T10:54:12Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Cargogal \*
> \*\*You guys don’t speak HTML? Sheesh! \*\*
No comprende senor ;), some of us are fluent in [vB code](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/index.php?action=bbcode) however.
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### Author:  [@11811](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/11811)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2001, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-in-a-handbasket/88326/8 "2001-10-19T11:23:49Z")
also hell in a haycart and hell in a bucket
personally, I’d like to see the phrase “hell in a hatchback” gain wide currency.
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### Author:  [@LiquidLobotomy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LiquidLobotomy)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2001, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hell-in-a-handbasket/88326/9 "2001-10-19T12:28:36Z")
You want to see hell in a hatchback, drive a 96’ Ford Escort sport model for a month…