Going to hell in a hand basket

I don't recall exactly what we were talking about or even who said it, but the phrase "going to hell in a hand basket" was thrown out the other day, which got me to thinking: "Where the hell (appropriate language, eh) did that saying come from?" Here's what Charlise and I figure, including a rough approximation of our thought process:

Why would someone go to hell in a handbasket? And how, exactly? They're tiny, aren't they? Yup. -->


You wouldn't even fit in one. Unless maybe you're all chopped up into tiny little pieces. No, that wouldn't work. The pieces would still be too big. I mean, 160 lbs of person in a handbasket, even in pieces, just ain't gonna fit. Then again, maybe if you drain all the fluids it's a lot smaller. Or you could make the pieces really, really small, like puree them. Ewww, God that's gross! Yup God wouldn't have anything to do with something like that, so it makes sense. When you're all ground up in a handbasket, where else would you be going but Hell? Aha! So now we understand the saying.