A: Mary quit her longtime job with the restaurant. What happened?

B: She was a resourceful hostess and good cook, but humble pie was not on the menu. The boss asked her to apologize to a picky guest who complained about her cooking. She refused.

Note: Originally meaning “a pie made from the edible organs of a deer or hog,” this term refers to a figurative serving of humiliation, usually in the form of a forced submission, apology, or retraction. We often use the saying in the phrase “to eat humble pie.” The phrase first appeared in the 1830s in the meaning defined above. A similar saying in the United States is “to eat crow.”