I always thought the phrase “soup to nuts” was inspired by a full meal, from soup to dessert, and meant “the whole kit n’ kaboodle.”
Today I saw an article in the Sydney Morning Herald where the post-bankruptcy president of Enron bragged he “turned ‘soup into nuts.’” I don’t quite understand this usage. They seem to have taken the story down now, or I would link.
Am I right about the phrase or its origin? Did the Enron guy just botch his metaphor?
Does it describe the effects of some kind of 1920’s death ray? Wait, that’s “turned ‘nuts into soup.’”