In case you were wondering... it's misused English. Tenterhooks are small hooks used to stretch canvas on a device called a tenter. So... tense with anticipation as though you were stretched on tenterhooks... somewhere along the way, it became "on tender hooks."

Very appropriate for me. An eccenctric New Orleanian said it in a book I read. I'm really quite a tense person at times. I was initially quite tense about the reception of this blog. As you may have noticed, I delight in mangling the English language in every way I can possibly imagine. And "tender hooks" is such a delighful contradiction of terms that just really fits my personality...