Timeline for Is there an English idiom for trying to do two things at the same time and failing at both of them due to splitting your effort?

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Aug 20, 2015 at 2:43	comment	added	user98990		Yes Stephan, Bilbo is writing his book at Bag End, but possession of the One Ring weighs heavily upon him. I'm afraid that we must trust the old hobbit when he says to his dear friend Gandalf that, far from living peacefully, as you have it, the hafling is feeling 'all thin' (not indicative of health for a hobbit, btw) and 'stretched ... like butter that has been scraped over too much bread' i.e., Bilbo is over-extended, like someone who is trying to do too many things at once, or who has underestimated the difficulty of a given task.
Jun 13, 2015 at 3:09	history	edited	user98990	CC BY-SA 3.0	added 185 characters in body
Jun 13, 2015 at 3:03	history	edited	user98990	CC BY-SA 3.0	added 185 characters in body
S Apr 30, 2015 at 1:05	history	suggested	Erich	CC BY-SA 3.0	improved formatting
Apr 29, 2015 at 23:44	review	Suggested edits
S Apr 30, 2015 at 1:05
Jan 13, 2015 at 9:44	comment	added	Stephan Kolassa		+1. However, the LoTR example does not seem to be helpful. Bilbo is not trying to do many things at once and failing at all of them; he is peacefully living at Bag End and writing his Book. His feeling comes from the influence of the One Ring.
Jan 13, 2015 at 5:11	history	edited	user98990	CC BY-SA 3.0	added 156 characters in body
Jan 13, 2015 at 1:07	history	answered	user98990	CC BY-SA 3.0