Flapdoodle

Recently Stuart Taylor used "flapdoodle" to describe the views of William Saffire, who objects to
the Total Information Awareness Project. Any ideas about the origin of "flapdoodle"?

Hey, William Safire is one of my idols. What is the "Total Information Awareness Project" anyway?

FLAPDOODLE - 1. an imaginary food of fools, nonsense. 2. mischief From the "Dictionary of American Regional English," Volume 2 by Frederic G. Cassidy (1985, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., and London, England).