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Here is a thought: The full form of this proverb is 'one bad apple spoils the barrel', meaning that a bad person, policy, etc, can ruin everything around it.
And this:
In Reply to: One rotten apple spoils the whole barrel posted by marie on March 13, 2006
: what is the origin of one rotten apple spoils the whole barrel
The saying is a truism. One rotten apple DOES spoil the whole barrel, eventually, because of mold spores invading the other apples. Sometimes an entire group, like the U.S. Congress, is corrupted, like a barrel of fruit, by the presence of one bad guy, or one "bad apple." There are a lot of other groups to which this dictum has been employed, such as individual police departments. It's an observed truth that one bad officer can eventually corrupt a whole department, beginning with the reluctance of other officers to rat him out. In a political body, it often works when one sleazy individual uses questionable means to gain an advantage, finds the loophole, perhaps. To fight back his opponents feel they must get down in the smelly barrel with the original bad apple, use his methods to survive. Our founding fathers were high-minded and principled idealists (Hamilton's adultery notwithstanding), and our first four presidents (U.S.A.) were very nearly above reproach. Then came the selling of offices and government by crony, and it has been a downhill race ever since.
Have a great evening! sam 
posted by
sam444
on February 26, 2009 at 4:06 PM
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Oh great!
Now you have me singing that Osmond song...One Bad Apple. LOL! And I have a bunch of bananas that have gone bad and are crying out to be made into banana bread!
posted by
ginnieb
on February 26, 2009 at 10:56 AM
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if they sit in a basket they are a bunch and if one is spoiled then shorthly they will all go bad
posted by
Lanetay
on February 26, 2009 at 9:51 AM
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LOL, maybe somebody threw out a whole basket of apple because one was bad
and caught hell for it in the dark ages...lmao. hmmmm good question.
posted by
hazel_st_cricket
on February 26, 2009 at 9:20 AM
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