If an apple recipe a day keeps the doc away, we'll be lookin' good.

Byline: ANN BURGER Of the Post and Courier staff

Anybody seen a bad apple lately? I don't mean a bruised Red Delicious with a couple of pits gouged into it. I mean a human bad apple - a person who's mean or dishonest or a real malcontent. "Bad apple" is one of those colorfully expressive phrases that seem to have passed out of use, for who-knows-what reason. I'd bet that most kids today - teen-age or younger, if not people in their 20s - have never heard that expression in conversation and wouldn't be sure what it means. Apples show up in a number of expressions, many of which have gone the way of that "bad apple." Who remembers these oldies but goodies? Apple-pie order - neatly arranged, everything in its place. Wise apple - a smart-aleck. Full of applesauce - full of nonsense. Apple polisher - someone who insincerely kisses up to a superior in hopes of gaining favor. My all-time favorite apple expression comes from the first city editor I worked for, about 15 years ago now, in Monroe, N.C. I came to work one morning feeling grumpy for no apparent reason, and I started grousing about this and that. Not one to suffer that kind of behavior for very long, Steve held a match to his ever-present pipe, took a couple of puffs to get it going, looked up at me from his desk and said, in his Tar Heel drawl: "Who licked the red off your apple?" It was impossible not to crack a smile after that. A Charleston reader's request for apple pie recipes is what sent me off on that tangent. Let's get back to …