A popular riddle about eating is:
Q: What is the difference between a hungry man and a glutton?
A: One longs to eat and the other eats too long.
The riddle has been cited in print since 1867.
Chronicling America
23 October 1867, American Citizen (Butler, PA), “Wit and Wisdom,” pg. 1, col. 7:
What is the difference between a hungry man and a glutton? One longs to eat and the other eats too long.
Google Books
30 May 1868, The Shamrock, pg. 592, col. 1:
What is the difference between a hungry man and a glutton? —one longs to eat and the other eats too long.
Google Books
September 1878, Gleason’s Monthly Companion, pg. 431, col. 1:
What is the difference between a hungry man and a glutton? One longs to eat, and the other eats too long.
Google Books
January 1883, Frank Leslie’s Popular Monthly, pg. 127, col. 1:
THE difference between a hungry man and a glutton is, one longs to eat, and the other eats too long.
Google Books
12 December 1891, Pick-Me-Up, pg. 186, col. 1:
The difference between a starving man and a glutton is, that one longs to eat and the other eats too long.
Google Books
Cyclopedia of Puzzles
By Sam Loyd
New York, NY: Lamb Publishing Company
1914
Pg. 10:
What is the difference between a hungry man and a glutton? One longs to eat and the other eats too long.
Google Books
July 1964, Boys’ Life, “Think and Grin,” pg. 72, col. 3:
O: What is the difference between a hungry man and a glutton?
A: One longs to eat and the other eats too long.— Roy Altherr, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Google Books
Riddles, Riddles, Riddles:
Enigmas and Anagrams, Puns and Puzzles, Quizzes and Conundrums!
Selected by Joseph Leeming
Illustrated by Shane Miller
Mineola, NY: Dover Publications
2014
Pg. 81:
What is the difference between a glutton and a hungry man?
One eats too long, and the other longs to eat.
Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.
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Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Google Maps. Stolen and missing, 2021-2024.
Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Aug. 15, 1931, Binghamton (NY) Press, pg. 14.
Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce "The Big Apple," a hit song from 1937. Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich.
Also listen to a 1937 "The Big Apple" song by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra. See a 1929 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald and a 1931 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald.
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