Which they can then spin into a secret test of whether you’re more giving-oriented or more taking-oriented.
Idjits love their pop-psych gotchas.
As I interpret it, it’s neither a false dilemma nor a test. but a metaphor—that has become a cliche—for the way some people tend to focus on what they have while others tend to focus on what they lack.
This is so common I predict “tow the line” will eventually replace the original. It better represents what people mean in most figurative usages and “toe” is a rare verb. Moreover, “toeing the line” can be interpreted as testing boundaries instead of conforming to them.
One defuses a tense situation. One does not diffuse it.
Same w/ bombs (if you do it right), as Tripler will tell you.
And crowds are asked to disperse, not disburse. Also, “penultimate,” does not mean “better than ultimate.” “Enormity” does not mean “enormous.” And “casualty” does not mean “a cavalier attitude”; “casualness” sort of does, but personally, I’d go with “disdainful,” or something like that.
People say…“I could care less” …when they truly COULDN’T care less.
I’ve had people tell me they were asked it during pre-employment psych tests which I find bazaar. Is that question really a useful tool?
And especially, is it a useful tool in a Middle East street market?
“Erm… The glass is refillable” also nicely derails this over-used philosophical challenge.
(still annoying the crap out of me)
Eating chocolate has the same effect on the brain as cocaine.
The fact that there are alternative versions of this, such as “…same effect on the brain as being in love” tells you all you need to know.
Neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin are involved in a plethora of actions / behaviours right down to basic body movement. If you just look at neurotransmitters you can find all kinds of spurious “X is just like Y” comparisons, and that’s the basis of this one.
I’m aware at least one prominent neuroscientist recently repeated this claim in an interview, and I hope he reads this post and feels suitably ashamed.
Also, while we’re talking neuroscience / psychology: the idea that if someone does something a lot, they’re “addicted” (usually used because the person saying it disapproves of a particular pursuit).
Addiction defined that broadly is largely meaningless as there are lots of things we must, or want to, repeat many times in our lives.
Medically speaking, addiction is where a person seeks a stimulus compulsively to the detriment of the rest of their life.
One difference, for example, is whether a person can go without X for some time if they have to.
If you’re a Latin purist, those are pronounced with what English speakers think is a long I. The plurals that end with a long E are those that end with -i, such as alumni, abaci, radii, and stewardi.
chances are 100% that someone’s going to followup with a complaint about virii
Indeed, it’s the standard idiom in Scottish English and Ondian English.
“Margarine is only one molecule different from plastic.”
Yeah, so is nearly everything else.
“Car for sell.”
“I could care less”
No, you couldn’t care less.
The old college newspaper want ads:
“Car for sale, runs good.”
Or “breaks” instead of “brakes”?
The words have a Latin background, but they’re English now.