Comments on: Birds, Hands & Bushes

By: Boogie's Mom

Boogie's Mom — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 17:26:16 +0000

You have a strange mind.

By: Belinda

Belinda — Sun, 05 Mar 2006 05:21:00 +0000

Been sitting on my hands as long as I could stand it over this little phrase–it’s from back when there WASN’T a “bird store,” dude! And don’t act like you didn’t know that perfectly well when you wrote this. All it means is that a sure thing (the bird you’ve already shot, killed, and have in your hand to take home and eat) has more value to a hungry person than those two wiley fowl hiding in the brush, which you have no idea whether you’ll be able to find in the first place, much less flush, hit, find again, and bring home. Now imagine that this aphorism originated before the advent of gunpowder, and, well…it gets clearer all the time! Better to have something small and reliable than a chance at something bigger but riskier? How about changing it to, “I’d rather have $100 in my hand than a raffle ticket for a chance at a $200 prize?”

There. I am officially the dork who’s been goaded into “explaining” what everyone already knew. Mock me at will.

Remind me to never take you quail hunting (you never know who might go all Cheney on you) or shopping for chicken.

And Dave, you knucklehead, the penny you save will eventually earn another penny’s interest…it’s money that can be used in the future instead of being spent and gone forever, and besides, it’s a…oh, never mind. You guys are just sucking me into making an ass of myself.

Elizabeth, I’ll email you about the stitches.

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Sun, 05 Mar 2006 03:22:09 +0000

Yes, but does a Stitch in Time really save Nine? Is there one perfect stitch that saves you having to make nine stitches later? I don’t sew, so I never really got that one.

Belinda sent me, I’m hooked, and will be standing outside Barnes & Noble tomorrow morning first thing to get a copy of “Mental Floss”. Well, there’s a Starbucks there too, so I’d be going anyway.

By: annabel lee

annabel lee — Sat, 04 Mar 2006 23:32:40 +0000

You’ll be happy to know that all of the math in this post is correct. Yes, I checked it as I read it. But for the record, I can, in fact, prove that 1=2. (When I taught calculus in college, we’d start off with an algebra review, and I’d write the proof on the board, and I told my students they couldn’t leave until they found the flaw. Inevitably, one of them would say, “There’s nothing wrong in the proof,” to which I’d respond, “OK, give me $2, I’ll give you $1 back, and we’ll be even.”)

By: Bre

Bre — Sat, 04 Mar 2006 23:04:07 +0000

Being a bird owner, I myself see the incredible wisdom in this statement. I’ve had to crawl on my hands and knees through sticker bushes to get to an escaped pet…not a good scenario!

By: PatsyAnn

PatsyAnn — Sat, 04 Mar 2006 20:31:26 +0000

big bubbles, no troubles

By: Michael O'Connor

Michael O'Connor — Sat, 04 Mar 2006 20:13:46 +0000

I grew up with two catch phrases my father believed were pure gold:

1. “It’s six of one, half dozen of another.” (Silent retort: Yeah, big guy, but what does that MEAN?”)

2. (After complaining he let the juice from the peas run through the crispy shoestring potatos on my dinner plate, thereby rendering them soggy and hopelessly inedible) “It all goes down the same pipe.” (Silent retort: “OK, Dad, let’s go down to Dairy queen and have you test that theory out on a chili sundae or hot fudge dog.”)

Some forty years later I am still haunted by the specter of these meaningless phrases. Thanks for your good work, Dr. Paul. You bring healing to the sick of heart and broken of spirit. If only “Words For My Enjoyment” had existed back in the Sixties the world might be a saner place.

Oh well . . . better late than never.

By: Dave2

Dave2 — Sat, 04 Mar 2006 18:21:36 +0000

Now if you could just get down to the bottom of this “a penny saved is a penny earned” thing, I’d be most grateful.

Don’t you have to earn the penny BEFORE you can save the penny? Or maybe it’s all backwards, in which case if the saved penny wasn’t earned… was the penny stolen? I guess it could have been a gift, who gives a penny as a gift? Did they find the penny? Maybe they took it from one of those “have a penny give a penny, need a penny take a penny” jars that sit at the checkout?

I suppose that this could be one of those sayings whose real meaning has been lost in the antiquities of time (and falling penny value), but it’s always confused me greatly.

By: Pauly D

Pauly D — Sat, 04 Mar 2006 17:59:27 +0000

I tackle the tough questions, Nic.

By: nic

nic — Sat, 04 Mar 2006 17:58:06 +0000

Funny how no one ever bothered to work that out before. Or even questioned it, for that matter.