# Metaphorical phrases that just irk you. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 13, 2010, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metaphorical-phrases-that-just-irk-you/535932 "2010-04-13T07:36:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![MegaBee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f0a364/32.png) [@MegaBee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MegaBee)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2010, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metaphorical-phrases-that-just-irk-you/535932/61 "2010-04-19T17:56:37Z")
> [@The\_Bith\_Shuffle](#): > > The reason that I hate the phrase is that the reason to _possess_ a cake is to _consume_ it. I’ve never felt, eating my cake, as though I was someone missing the joy of merely owning it. The common use of this phrase is reversed. The original phrase says that you can’t eat your cake and have it, too, which makes much more sense. ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2010, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metaphorical-phrases-that-just-irk-you/535932/62 "2010-04-19T20:33:18Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > Whenever someone meets a stranger from the Internet (or wherever), there is only one concern that they have. Do they worry that the person might be a knife murderer? A gun murderer? A pointy stick murderer? Apparently not. Who’d be crazy enough to carry around a knife, gun, or pointy stick? That’s just crazy talk. > > Likewise, people take good care of themselves because there is no chance that tomorrow they could be hit by a car, SUV, or truck. I have no idea what you’re trying to say here. Where’s the metaphor? What’s the idiom? > [@MegaBee](#): > > The common use of this phrase is reversed. The original phrase says that you can’t eat your cake and have it, too, which makes much more sense. So what if it’s reversed? “and” isn’t the same thing as “then”. The idiom is identical in meaning no matter which order the clauses are in. Here, “and” means “but at the same time” while “have” means “possess”. So what’s the big freakin’ problem?!?! I have cake. I’m having it. I’m having it. I still have it. Now I’m eating it. Still eating it. It’s gone, so I don’t have it nor am I eating it. It goes have-eat-gone. There is no stage where one both has it and is eating it. It’s like you people can’t speak English or something! But you know what irks me the most? When someone starts a semi-original thread by taking a done-to-death idea and adding a caveat to make it interesting, and by page one, posters have reverted to the d-t-d topic. So how about sticking with freakin’ metaphors already, m’kay? :mad: ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2010, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metaphorical-phrases-that-just-irk-you/535932/63 "2010-04-20T03:52:46Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > Also another pet hate,there is no me in team. > > Sorry matey but the team is made up of individuals who look on themselves as “me”.(Not me personally you understand ) Actually, the saying is, “There’s no I in team.” Which is grammatically correct, but overlooks the fact that as you mentioned, “team” does have a “me”. ---
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2010, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metaphorical-phrases-that-just-irk-you/535932/64 "2010-04-20T04:17:04Z")
Again, these are not metaphors. This has turned into a “phrases/sayings that just irk you.” What’s the deal? ---
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2010, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metaphorical-phrases-that-just-irk-you/535932/65 "2010-04-20T08:25:59Z")
Here’s a great lnk to some classic phrases: [http://mobile.associatedcontent.com/article/529409/33\_annoying\_expressions\_that\_killed.html](http://mobile.associatedcontent.com/article/529409/33_annoying_expressions_that_killed.html) (Sorry it’s ugly, I’m mobile, literally) I loved the post about “It is what it is”. OOOOH!! That phrase uttered will put me on a CNN alert broadcast. 😃 I’ll add “There’s no time like the present.” Like the prophet George Carlin said, “There is no present, there is only the recent past and the immediate future.” ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2010, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metaphorical-phrases-that-just-irk-you/535932/66 "2010-04-20T08:58:28Z")
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm… On the whole cake thing, the way it was explained to me (when I was a little girl asking what it was supposed to mean) was something along the lines of, referring to a very very pretty decorated cake, one that is so pretty that you don’t want to cut into or ruin the looks of, but if you don’t, you won’t actually get to eat it. So you can’t “have” that is, get to keep to look at and admire, your cake and eat it too. YMMV ---
**Author:** ![Civil\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d78d45/32.png) [@Civil\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Guy)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2010, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metaphorical-phrases-that-just-irk-you/535932/67 "2010-04-21T03:31:07Z")
“We need to send a message to those politicians!” Heard this one again today. Sigh. It’s pompous, it’s arrogant, it’s stupid. Mostly, it’s stupid. If you want to send a message, try e-mail. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2010, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metaphorical-phrases-that-just-irk-you/535932/68 "2010-04-21T04:00:17Z")
Any cute catchphrase that runs all over the internet so fast that everyone is falling over themselves trying to use it first, without realizing they sound like a bunch of copycats. It makes me hella throw up a little in my mouth. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2010, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metaphorical-phrases-that-just-irk-you/535932/69 "2010-04-21T15:00:17Z")
“Spare the rod and spoil the child” Is that advice? Does that mean it’s better not to punish the child and coddle them instead for misbehaving? If it’s a warning, why not phrase it as “If you spare the rod, you’ll spoil the child” and make the meaning clearer? Who spanks children with rods anyway? I don’t think it was ever common practice to beat children with rebar. ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2010, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metaphorical-phrases-that-just-irk-you/535932/70 "2010-04-21T15:44:53Z")
We did. We used to call it a rebarrin’. Hurt somethin wicked fierce. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metaphorical-phrases-that-just-irk-you/535932.md?page=3)