# "Anything's possible" - No, it freakin' isn't! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 9, 2011, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anythings-possible-no-it-freakin-isnt/588415 "2011-07-09T15:25:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anythings-possible-no-it-freakin-isnt/588415/61 "2011-07-11T22:45:33Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Can’t we agree that in most cases when someone says “Anything’s possible,” it’s just a hyperbolic way of saying “A whole lot of things are possible”? Sorry. Some of us are very literal-minded and while we love hyperbole (“OMIGOD, that’s the BEST sex I ever had!!!”), we don’t like THIS kind of confusing hyperbole. > [@Balance](#): > > One of my favorite bits on the sort of scene **ThelmaLout** is deriding seems to involve a lawyer questioning a medical examiner… > \*Lawyer: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse? > Witness: No. > Lawyer: Did you check for blood pressure? > Witness: No. > Lawyer: Did you check for breathing? > Witness: No. > Lawyer: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy? > Witness: No. > Lawyer: How can you be so sure, Doctor? > Witness: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar. > Lawyer: But could the patient have still been alive nevertheless? > Witness: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law somewhere. \* Yes, yes! I love this one! ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2011, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anythings-possible-no-it-freakin-isnt/588415/62 "2011-07-12T01:09:22Z")
It’s impossible to stick a Cadillac up your nose. ---
**Author:** ![Avarie537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/48db29/32.png) [@Avarie537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avarie537)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2011, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anythings-possible-no-it-freakin-isnt/588415/63 "2011-07-12T01:28:20Z")
> [@A Monkey With a Gun](#): > > To be fair, it was gunpowder and the guy was absolutely _flaming_. My uncle was on that ship; he was a gunners mate. 47 people died that day. Not _really_ funny. ---
**Author:** ![enomaj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/59ef9b/32.png) [@enomaj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enomaj)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2011, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anythings-possible-no-it-freakin-isnt/588415/64 "2011-07-12T04:49:13Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > It’s impossible to stick a Cadillac up your nose. 1. Sell Cadillac. 2. Buy coke. 3. Snort [Anything IS possible!](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyjOy7fRzs0) ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2011, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anythings-possible-no-it-freakin-isnt/588415/65 "2011-07-12T04:56:12Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > It’s impossible to stick a Cadillac up your nose. Perhaps, but if Princess Margaret had been with us, we could have saved the Bentley. ---
**Author:** ![RadicalPi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/radicalpi/32/9806_2.png) [@RadicalPi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RadicalPi)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anythings-possible-no-it-freakin-isnt/588415/66 "2011-07-15T02:27:27Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > Yeah, what’s wrong? It is indeed an outrage that they pick up a letter at your front door, deliver it to the front door of your aunt on the other side of the country, and then have the nerve to charge you 44¢ for it. > > The point is that North Americans seem to get “outraged” by the slightest inconvenience, like having to wait in line for services that are over-burdened because they don’t want to pay for them with taxes. I thought that someone had a problem with the phrase “It’s an outrage.” Perhaps because in some sense an outrage isn’t possible or whatever, and I couldn’t think of any reasonable way that could be true. ---
**Author:** ![scratch\_llll](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@scratch\_llll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scratch_llll)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anythings-possible-no-it-freakin-isnt/588415/67 "2011-07-15T03:44:11Z")
> [@PoorYorick](#): > > Hey, c’mon, all you have to do is want it bad enough. > > (If that were true, Superman would have flown down and beat the shit out of my big brother when I was six, because nobody anywhere at any time wanted something as badly as I wanted that). On behalf of big brothers everywhere I just want to say you were asking for it when we held you down and farted on your head. Also, I like what Dolly Pardon said about possible. She said they lived in a one room shack and she was the only girl with many brothers at bath time. Her mother told her to wash up as far as possible and down as far as possible and when her brothers left the room to wash possible. ---
**Author:** ![nd\_n8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/439d5e/32.png) [@nd\_n8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nd_n8)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anythings-possible-no-it-freakin-isnt/588415/68 "2011-07-15T14:20:31Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Sorry, no. > > LOTS of things are possible. Lots of things that you can’t possibly imagine are possible. The imagination and creativity of The Infinite Mind/Vastness (whatever you want to call it) is waaaaay beyond what we can begin to imagine, let alone bring about. > > But to say and literally mean: ANYTHING is possible. Nope. > > For one thing, my late husband will not walk through the door. (And don’t say, that’s not what you meant, because that comes under the heading of “anything.”) I think that “Anything is possible.” is more of an invitation to unbind the constraints of our creativity that have been placed there by practicality and complacency; not necessaraly reflecting any constraints placed by reality, but only by our perception of reality. e.g. My father passed away 14 years ago. It is entirely possible for someone to exhume him, rig what’s left of his corpse up like a puppet with wires, strings, pneumatic cylanders and what-not, and have him walk through the door at any time. Heck, the last T-Rex died out what, about 65 million years ago? I could have one of those walk through my door as well, with my reanimated father riding on it’s back singing a Lady Gaga song. Absurd? Yes. Possible? Yes. Probable? No, not really. One doesn’t need an Infinate Mind to make the impossible, possible. One needs only look at their own mind and find what’s holding them back. And what holds most of us back is fear, not reality. ---
**Author:** ![Dragwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dragwyr/32/2855_2.png) [@Dragwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragwyr)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anythings-possible-no-it-freakin-isnt/588415/69 "2011-07-15T17:23:50Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Can’t we agree that in most cases when someone says “Anything’s possible,” it’s just a hyperbolic way of saying “A whole lot of things are possible”? I suppose, but then anything is… No. I’m sorry. I just can’t do it and keep a straight face. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Bamboo\_Boy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/839c29/32.png) [@Bamboo\_Boy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bamboo_Boy)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2011, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anythings-possible-no-it-freakin-isnt/588415/70 "2011-07-16T10:18:37Z")
> [@DarrenS](#): > > Also, I think “everything happens for a reason” is a gateway assertion into mystical woo. THIS. How I hate this! ---
**Author:** ![Bamboo\_Boy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/839c29/32.png) [@Bamboo\_Boy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bamboo_Boy)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2011, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anythings-possible-no-it-freakin-isnt/588415/71 "2011-07-16T10:36:21Z")
> [@nd\_n8](#): > > I think that “Anything is possible.” is more of an invitation to unbind the constraints of our creativity that have been placed there by practicality and complacency; not necessaraly reflecting any constraints placed by reality, but only by our perception of reality. > > e.g. My father passed away 14 years ago. It is entirely possible for someone to exhume him, rig what’s left of his corpse up like a puppet with wires, strings, pneumatic cylanders and what-not, and have him walk through the door at any time. Heck, the last T-Rex died out what, about 65 million years ago? I could have one of those walk through my door as well, with my reanimated father riding on it’s back singing a Lady Gaga song. > > Absurd? Yes. > Possible? Yes. > Probable? No, not really. > > One doesn’t need an Infinate Mind to make the impossible, possible. One needs only look at their own mind and find what’s holding them back. And what holds most of us back is fear, not reality. So…all that’s stopping a zombie marionette singing bad pop on an extinct animal from crashing through my door right now is fear? And it’s fear that prevents me from pole vaulting over K2? ---
**Author:** ![Uber\_the\_Goober](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/58956e/32.png) [@Uber\_the\_Goober](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uber_the_Goober)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2011, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anythings-possible-no-it-freakin-isnt/588415/72 "2011-07-16T16:57:06Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > Shame it’s total bollocks. It just doesn’t stand up to logical scrutiny at all. Eliminate the _impossible_ and you are still left with an almost infinite number of _possible_ situations. But only one of them actually happened. I really don’t know what Conan Doyle was playing at when he wrote this line. Hey man don’t be knocking my favorite set of short stories. The quotation works because it is applied to the bounds of an already established set of possibilities, in a realistic situation, where what has happened is already understood because it happened, yadda yadda. So it’s more like, A happened, then B happened, where A and B are pre-defined, plausible, and supported by the evidence, but may convict the wrong man. or C happened, then B happened, where C is “mostly” defined, not supported by the evidence, but would be a convenient explanation. or D happened, then B happened, where D is improbable, but is plausible, and makes for a more likely set of events _after all the information is revealed_, like previously unknown motives, or previously unknown possibilities with regard to the states of time, space, and matter (see scientific theories and stuff) At no point would this be continued into infinity for “possible explanations” because of commonly understood limits to stretching the possibilities. Sherlock just had different limits than most people in his day and age, because fingerprinting was new, there was no DNA evidence, and woo-woo was rampant. Continue this into a longer set of A, B C, or D and you’ve got yourself a murder mystery. Or a fascinating revelation about the way planets move. Or an “ah ha” moment after a particularly confusing car accident. 🙂 So no, Conan Doyle was not suggesting that flying monkeys could do anything, or that “a wizard did it” is an acceptable explanation for anything. Quite the contrary actually. It works if you have actually read Sherlock Holmes. It doesn’t work if you are a closed minded skeptic (not that I am calling you one, just saying). If you haven’t read the books I suggest you do. They’re fun, and get the mental gears going. ---
**Author:** ![Mosier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@Mosier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mosier)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2011, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anythings-possible-no-it-freakin-isnt/588415/73 "2011-07-16T22:47:59Z")
> [@Avarie537](#): > > My uncle was on that ship; he was a gunners mate. 47 people died that day. Not _really_ funny. I can see why you wouldn’t think so. ---
**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anythings-possible-no-it-freakin-isnt/588415/74 "2011-07-17T17:10:59Z")
> [@A Monkey With a Gun](#): > > To be fair, it was gunpowder and the guy was absolutely _flaming_. the semi-good news is that when the truth was finally revealed, a senior admiral personally apologized to the family of the sailor and the admiral in charge of the investigation service was forced out of the navy. And he didn’t go quietly-but he went. For the record, there was no evidence at all that there was sabatoge, and in fact the explosion was caused by static discharge when the gunpowder was loaded into the barrel. This was conclusively proven when the same explosion occurred at Dalgreen during a routine test. Something the Navy determined could NEVER happen. Then it did. ---
**Author:** ![Tess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e480ec/32.png) [@Tess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tess)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anythings-possible-no-it-freakin-isnt/588415/75 "2011-07-17T22:16:29Z")
From the title I thought this was more about telling kids, “You can do ANYTHING you set your minds to. Everyone of you can be President if you jut believe in yourself!” Which immediately made me think of an exchange from Titus. Titus: Dad! Teacher said we can be anything we wanted to be. Papa Titus: She wasn’t talking to you son. Now, go in the backyard and practice digging some holes. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anythings-possible-no-it-freakin-isnt/588415/76 "2011-07-17T23:39:13Z")
> [@rbroome](#): > > For the record, there was no evidence at all that there was sabatoge, and in fact the explosion was caused by static discharge when the gunpowder was loaded into the barrel. This was conclusively proven when the same explosion occurred at Dalgreen during a routine test. Something the Navy determined could NEVER happen. Then it did. Eh, just goes to show anything’s possible. ---
**Author:** ![nd\_n8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/439d5e/32.png) [@nd\_n8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nd_n8)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anythings-possible-no-it-freakin-isnt/588415/77 "2011-07-19T12:42:30Z")
> [@Bamboo\_Boy](#): > > So…all that’s stopping a zombie marionette singing bad pop on an extinct animal from crashing through my door right now is fear? And it’s fear that prevents me from pole vaulting over K2? Well, yeah. Fear and a really big stick. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anythings-possible-no-it-freakin-isnt/588415.md?page=3)