Hello and welcome to today’s military-themed idiom from the LINGUA FRANCA Sprachschule team here in Berlin.
„When our new colleague joined the sales team, everyone was very impressed. His first idea for attracting new customers was very creative and, more importantly, very effective. But since then he has mostly been causing problems. I’m starting to think that his early form was just a flash in the pan (Eintagesfliege).“
This idiom comes from the days when flintlock muskets (such as the one in the video below) were still in regular use. On top of the musket was a small pan holding gun powder. This style of rifle suffered from a type of misfire in which the gun powder burnt, but no bullet was fired. This was refered to as a „flash in the pan“ – a dramatic flash and lots of smoke, but no real result. To see an example, have a look at the video below.