So where does this one come from?  Does it have roots in the military?  (Some grunts are cooking something over an open flame and they see a flash in a pan; it’s the glint of a knife…)

Or am I way off base here…

From memory, I think it refers to the flash from the pan of the old style musket.  The gunpowder was ignited in the pan to fire the musket ball hence the phrase.

Ah, so it does have some weaponry origin.

LOL… You’d never have guessed what I always assumed this referred to…

In cooking, you can create dishes whose preparation ends with a good douse of rum (or some other flammable liquid), allowed to burn out.

It creates a rather impressive image at first, but leads to no change in the dish.

Here’s a good recipe for Banana Flambé:

http://www.mamas-recipe.com/recipe_banana_flambe.html

Yeah, I’ve eaten those fiery alcoholic desserts.

So, what did you assume this referred to??

LOL… Did I appear to be rambling?

I thought it came from the impressive burst of flame when the combustible is ignited…  As in, "a flash in the [cooking] pan"...

You appeared a little rambling, but it was maybe the ellipsis that made me think you were off on another tack…

(there’s another one…an equestrian term?)

P.S. Thanks for the recipe  :)

Another Tack is a naval term, referring to the tacking of sailing ships. To go off on another tack means to go off on another course

Lexica  :)

[quote author=Lexica link=board=idiom;num=1037147205;start=0#1 date=11/12/02 at 19:35:28]From memory, I think it refers to the flash from the pan of the old style musket.  The gunpowder was ignited in the pan to fire the musket ball hence the phrase.

Close.  

flash . . .

Idiom: flash in the pan
One that promises great success but fails.
. . .

The flame from the gunpowder in the pan had to go through a hole in the barrel and set off the main gunpowder charge to propel the ball.  If the hole was blocked, or if the main charge failed to go off for some other reason, all you got was "a flash in the pan" (i. e., no real effect), which is where the phrase really comes from.

That makes sense.  Also why M-16’s are more reliable.

[quote author=dgale link=board=idiom;num=1037147205;start=0#10 date=11/14/02 at 00:01:06]That makes sense.  Also why M-16’s are more reliable.

Cute.  

Also the old expression "shut your pan", meaning "be silent". If the pan was shut, the flint couldn’t ignite the powder, and the gun didn’t go off. I gave this one an outing a while back, under the discussion of deadpan. (See post #98 on that thread.)

Grant

[quote author=granthutchison link=board=idiom;num=1037147205;start=0#12 date=11/15/02 at 21:37:42]Also the old expression "shut your pan", meaning "be silent". If the pan was shut, the flint couldn’t ignite the powder, and the gun didn’t go off. I gave this one an outing a while back, under the discussion of deadpan. (See post #98 on that thread.)

I guess I’ve been here a while; I’m starting to have fond memories of old threads.  I heard "The Devil Inside" at a friend’s house; it sounded familiar and I asked, who sings that?  He answered, INXS.  And I thought—Oh my god, when Grant wrote of his In Excess mistake, I thought I had never heard any music by them, but really I was mistaking INXS for NSYNC, whom I’ve never heard… how’s that for intensifying (the type mistake we were discussing)?   Did ekkis ever come up with a word for that?

This has nothing to do with language, but tamisaac, you will live your life just fine if you never hear anything by NSYNC.  :)

[quote author=dgale link=board=idiom;num=1037147205;start=0#14 date=11/16/02 at 23:14:50]This has nothing to do with language, but tamisaac, you will live your life just fine if you never hear anything by NSYNC.  :)

Thanks.  I’ve never had the urge.  I did once hear a Britney Spears song—"I’m not a girl, but I’m not yet a woman" or something like that—and did think it rather nicely captured a peculiar situation that (what would in other societies be) young women finding themselves in these days.  I had thought to mention it in the discussion of what is a woman, on whatever thread that was, but I would have been falsely presenting myself as someone who knew what I was talking about.  
PS (pssst… in case you haven’t noticed, posts don’t have to be about language…)