I was thinking about the phrase ‘The pot calling the kettle black’. It comes from a time where cooking was done over open fires and cookware would become visibly ashy. (Fun fact: It first appears and was perhaps coined by Cervantes in Don Quixote!)
What are some other idioms that have lost their literal connection to time? What would be a good modern replacement?
FYI this can still happen on liquid propane stoves, so not totally lost to time.
Maybe “Kill two birds with one stone”, because who hunts with stones anymore?
As a software dev I’ll offer ‘Kill two bugs with one patch’ as a replacement.
and put 4 new ones in :)
Touché!
I think I remember seeing a PETA post years ago that suggested “feed two birds with one scone”
Yeah that one bugs me. I can feed multiple birds with one scone easily. I’m putting in too much effort here, but this recipe has the macronutrient mass of a single scone at 90g. The average crow weighs about 300-600g. I chose it because it’s a common bird that would be interested in scone and that people like to feed, that’s on the bigger end of birds people feed (outside waterfowl). One crow isn’t eating nearly a third of its mass in one go, a sixth maybe. Songbirds aren’t even getting close to that.
Killing two birds with one stone implies some skill or fortune. You wouldn’t say it to describe picking up tomorrow’s groceries with today’s. Feeding two birds with one scone is only difficult or fortunate if those birds are geese, and even then I assume the only reason two managed to get their bills on that thing is because they’re fighting over it.
Also scones are terrible for the health of birds as are all breads. It’s frankly on point that peta would be dumb enough to make their animal friendly term equally as harmful to animals.
I prefer “Get two birds stoned at once”
“it’s a twofer!”