The whole ball of wax?

Some say that the expression is a corruption of “the whole bailiwick.”

Make a candle, enlighten the world….

She was like, “What the hell does that even mean?”, and I had to admit, “Beats the fuck out of me!”

It is possibly an idiom from the Madison Ave. advertising biz., similar to “Let’s run it up the flagpole and see who salutes it,” and “the big Kahuna.”

I seem to recall hearing all of these for the first time in the sixties.

Heh…I just read the other day the origins of ” stir crazy.”
Goes waaay back to the middle ages when prisoners were in charge of brewing the ale that everyone drank copiously night and day.
Apparently the fumes from the vats of boiling hops made one high and disoriented after a certain amount of time. Hence the expression ” stir crazy.” :-)

Here is a fascinating response to someone who had the same question. The last paragraph supports @Nullo‘s response.

The origin has been taken back so far that it is beginning to look as though another often-told story might be the right one. It is said that whole ball of wax is a humorous modification of whole bailiwick, perhaps because of a mental association between bail and ball, and between wick and candle wax.

A bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush…...

Now how do you like them apples!

What’s good for the goose is good for the gander and an apple a day…. lol

If I had a ball of wax, I’d throw it at an airplane.

Stop picking at your ears and the ball of wax will go away.

She might have said “You have half a ball of wax”. Just saying, you know?