Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

When he got out the new judge said he was a-going to make a man of him. So he took him to his own house, and dressed him up clean and nice, and had him to breakfast and dinner and supper with the family, and was just old pie to him, so to speak. - Mark Twain. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Kindle Locations 451-452).

The meaning is pretty obvious from context, but idiom of "old pie" seems to be pretty much unknown to Google.  Is this idiom used anywhere these days?

Then they tucked the old man into a beautiful room, which was the spare room, and in the night some time he got powerful thirsty and clumb out on to the porch-roof and slid down a stanchion and traded his new coat for a jug of forty-rod, and clumb back again and had a good old time; and towards daylight he crawled out again, drunk as a fiddler, and rolled off the porch and broke his left arm in two places, and was most froze to death when somebody found him after sun-up. - Mark Twain. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Kindle Locations 462-465).

Merriam-Webster says it's cheap whiskey. powerful enough to kill at 40 rods.  It's been a while since Iwas down n the farm, so I had to remember that there are 4 160-acre farms to a mile-square section, and a 160-acre farm is 160 rods by 160 rods.  That means 40 rod is 1/8 mile.  

But you can't feed a family of four on 160 acres these days; 1000 or more acres is pretty common, and considering how that few these days would know how long 40 rods is, I'm thinking that "40-rod" would not be common slang anywhere.  Or is it? 

It's fun reading Huck Finn after half a  century, but it's slow going this time around, because I keep stopping to look up pungle, hove, bullyragging, and other gems....