"Wandering around like a fart in the marketplace." (Confused.)

I later found out that that was originally "like a fart in the pickle barrel" (Yiddish: vi a farts im roisl), referring to fermentation bubbles working their way up between the pickles. That in turn was a play on "vi a frantsoiz in russland" (like a Frenchman in Russia, alluding to Napoleon's retreat). A pregnant metaphor indeed!