Popular Sayings that Don’t Make Sense

Over the years people have come up with popular phrases or sayings as an analogy for certain situations. Many of these make a lot of sense and perfectly describe the situation but there are a few that just don’t make sense.

Like comparing apples to oranges
Whenever someone is comparing two things that aren’t alike someone will always chime in by saying “that’s like comparing apples with oranges”, as if to say you can’t compare those things because they aren’t anything alike.

Isn’t that the point? Isn’t comparing all about figuring out in what ways two different things are alike? Comparing apples to oranges makes plenty off sense. How are they alike? What do they look like? What do they taste like? Apparently whoever came up with this saying thinks we should only compare apples to apples and oranges to oranges. How does that make any sense? Why compare two things that are exactly alike? That would be like saying, “well those identical twins sure have the same hair and eye color.

The whole nine yards
Often people refer to the “whole nine yards” as going all the way. Now maybe I’m just too young to get the reference but the only thing that I know of that is judged by yards is football. In football going the “whole nine yards” would not mean a whole lot since you have to go ten yards to get a first down. Instead of going all the way, going the “whole nine yards” would mean not going all the way.

Have your cake and eat to
This one I hear the most and it really bugs me. When someone says you want to have your cake and eat to they mean that you want it your way and you want to enjoy it. Well, yeah! Why wouldn’t I? Why in the world would I buy a cake and then just let it sit there and collect dust? Dang right I’m gong to eat my cake! I paid good money for that cake and it’s mine! I understand sometimes you might buy a cake and give it to somebody else. There is nothing wrong with that but there is also nothing wrong with eating the cake yourself.

Bones
No sayings with the word “bone” in it make sense to me. One is make no bones about it. What does that mean? I know that the saying means no doubt about it, but where does “no bones about it” come from”? Also, what about “I have a bone to pick with you”? Again, I know what the saying means, but where did bones come from?

Don’t put your eggs all in one basket
Again, I totally understand the meaning and I even understand the importance of the meaning. You shouldn’t depend on one thing for everything because if something happens to that one thing then you’re in trouble. The analogy is dumb though. Why would anybody with a bunch of eggs carry two baskets of eggs if they can just carry one basket of eggs? If carrying your eggs in one basket is such a bad idea then why do they sell eggs in one carton? Why don’t they sell you a carton of eggs and then another extra one to put in your pocket?

The saying should be more like “you can carry all your eggs in one basket but make sure you have some bacon and bread also because if you only have eggs and you lose your eggs you’ll be hungry but now if you lose your eggs you’ll still have bread and bacon.” Just rolls off the tongue doesn’t it?