|
Post by Pete on Apr 25, 2024 22:20:49 GMT
Sandy, that sentence with its double-negative makes the meaning unclear.
Anyway, here's another phrase that bugs me, "It is what it is." For two reasons; first I hear it way too often & secondly it's usually in response to a question about how someone feels about something. That response tells me nothing.
|
|
|
Post by Pete on Apr 29, 2024 13:36:59 GMT
Just heard another one on TV. Being discussed was twin boys & the speaker called them "two twins." Of course 'twins' indicates two look alike persons. No need for the 'two'.
Wouldn't two twins actually be 4 persons?
|
|
|
Post by Sandy on Apr 29, 2024 14:32:08 GMT
"I don't agree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it."
On the surface, that statement sounds really noble, but who among us would face death to fight for your right to say just about any damn thing that pops into your head?
|
|
|
Post by Sandy on Apr 29, 2024 15:49:03 GMT
Pete wrote: "1) "Like finding a needle in a haystack." Anytime something is going to be difficult to find someone is likely say that. Why would a needle be in a stack of hay in the first place? Why would someone be near a haystack using a needle?"
Pete, I think the point of that expression is that looking for something small and thus, extremely difficult to find would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. - not that you would actually look, nor are likely to find it there.
In other words, you are arguing for, not against, the expression. Not only is a tiny item not likely to be found in a haystack, even if it were, we are most unlikely to look there.
|
|
|
Post by Pete on Apr 29, 2024 18:01:27 GMT
Sandy, well yeah, I fully understand that saying.
My point is that I don't get how it came about. Meaning, who has ever lost a needle there & then thought: that was hard. I should make up a saying about it. No one.
|
|
|
Post by Sandy on Apr 29, 2024 19:20:46 GMT
Pete, I think you are over-analyzing that statement. For me, the meaning is crystal clear, but surely not to be taken literally.
|
|
|
Post by Sandy on Apr 29, 2024 19:43:46 GMT
Another saying that annoys me is "All's well that ends well."
In my view, many horrific things can, and do, happen before a situation ends "well."
|
|
|
Post by Pete on Apr 29, 2024 22:27:35 GMT
"It could be worse."
That one bugs me when I hear it said after I share an experience with someone about troubles I'm having. Saying it dismisses my feelings as if they were nothing. No sympathy.
|
|
|
Post by Sandy on Apr 29, 2024 23:47:14 GMT
Exactly!! If the horrific situation in Gaza finally ends, would we ever say "all is well" because the loooong standing horror is no longer ongoing. Not!!
And what about the much needed healing process? That, in itself, will take time and patience.
|
|
|
Post by Pete on Apr 30, 2024 11:42:32 GMT
"I could care less."
Often misused when someone means to say that they don't care at all about something. If they are capable of caring less then there is some caring there. You can't have less of something without a quantity of it existing first.
Try: "I couldn't care less."
|
|
|
Post by Sandy on Apr 30, 2024 12:00:49 GMT
Pete, it seems to me that "I couldn't care less" is the way I always hear it said - and is what I say, when applicable.
|
|
|
Post by Pete on Apr 30, 2024 13:00:04 GMT
Sandy, well, you heard it here first. And now that you have I'm thinking you'll hear it elsewhere soon. Like when I come across a new word I hadn't known before. Oddly I'll then see that word again somewhere else shortly afterword.
|
|
|
Post by Sandy on Apr 30, 2024 15:34:10 GMT
Here's one that annoys me, "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree" meaning that a child grows up to have similar behavior (usually bad) as his/her parents.
Not true for me - likely because I did not admire either my mother or stepfather. (My mother left my birth father when I was 9 months old and moved far away.)
|
|
|
Post by Pete on May 1, 2024 11:57:36 GMT
"First priority."
I often hear folks say, "My first priority is...", unnecessarily using 'first'.
'Priority' by definition describes that which, by precedence, outranks anything else by its order of importance. In other words, it comes first.
|
|
|
Post by Sandy on May 1, 2024 13:53:48 GMT
"It takes one to know one."
That one really confounds me. Does one need to be a thief him/herself to recognize a thief?, ... a liar to recognize a liar?
Ah, the list is endless.
|
|