In Peggy Parish’s children’s book Amelia Bedelia, published by Harper and Row in 1963, a new maid gets a list of chores. She takes every instruction literally. Told to dust the furniture, she throws dusting powder on it. Told to put the lights out, she takes the bulbs out and hangs them on the clothesline. The list also says “Dress the chicken.”
Mrs. Rogers comes home angry and is “on the verge of firing Amelia Bedelia.” Then Mr. Rogers puts a bite of Amelia’s lemon meringue pie into his wife’s mouth. None of the seven chores on the list asked for a pie. Mrs. Rogers keeps her and “vows to write more explicit instructions in the future.”