The cookies will come home to roost

This one is apt for the holidays. An old Headmaster at an English secondary school was addressing the boys regarding hair length and poor behavior. He then uttered the immortal line, “… and if this rule is not abided by, then the cookies will come home to roost, that I promise!” This is a mashup of “the chickens come home to roost” (one’s previous actions are about to have consequences for oneself) and “that’s the way the cookie crumbles” (there is nothing we can do about the way things have unfolded). He might also have been thinking that some of the boys were “tough cookies” (strong, determined person not easily intimidated). Then again, he might have been thinking of cooking a chicken for that evening’s dinner. A big thanks to James Aidan Coen for sending this one in!