"Long Pole in the Tent"?

Is this some kind of US Army expression? I WAG it’s what a business man would call something in the critical path upon which all else is dependent? - Jinx

I always understood it meant the brightest or best in a group, like “sharpest tool in the shed”.

It doesn’t refer to a clothed man with an erection?

I’ve only heard it in a business setting, but your WAG is correct. It also plays off the double meaning of the thing that holds up everything else.

In a tent, the tallest pole is in the center. The shorter poles are at the corners.

Then explain a canopy bed?

:smiley:

A canopy bed isn’t the same thing as a tent.

She said humorlessly.
:smiley:

We use the term “tall pole in the tent” in an IT setting to mean the thing that holds everything up. In other words, the longest running in a set of concurrent jobs or threads that forces downstream processes to wait.

Yep. It’s biz slang for the critical-path item in a program schedule. Among tasks that must be performed in parallel, it’s the one that takes the longest time.

An obvious pun :rolleyes:

Pun? I thought that was the reference.