Illogical phrases

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11 Feb 2011, 7:47 am

I've always had trouble with the following:

"Too little, too late."
"The wrong place at the wrong time."

It can be too little, or too late, but not both. Similarly, you can be in the wrong place at the right time, or the right place at the wrong time, but both can't be wrong simultaneously. There must be a better way of expressing what people mean. Does anyone else here feel the same?

Bluefins
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11 Feb 2011, 8:56 am

CrinklyCrustacean wrote:

It can be too little, or too late, but not both.

Sure it could. If you needed 1kg flour by 12.00 and got 500g by 13.00, that'd be too little and too late.

Wrong place & wrong time seems a bit weirder, as you'd usually measure the wrongness by one of them. If you're supposed to be in the park at 12.00, but are in the museum at 13.00, you can't really tell whether you failed to meet up in the park or not.

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11 Feb 2011, 9:02 am

These types of phrases are not meant to be strictly logical. Not all communication is logical. Especially communication about feelings or other things that are by nature not very logical.

Expecting everything to always be logical is illogical.

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Asp-Z
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11 Feb 2011, 9:03 am

A really illogical one is "sweating like a pig." Pigs can't sweat.

wavefreak58
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11 Feb 2011, 9:10 am

Asp-Z wrote:

A really illogical one is "sweating like a pig." Pigs can't sweat.

You're right, of course. But how aspie is it that I just HAD to look up the origin of the phrase?

Quote:

"Sweating like a Pig" to denote sweating profusely. This sounds illogical, as pigs have ineffective sweat glands, but the term is derived from the iron smelting process. After pouring into runners in sand, it is allowed to cool and is seen as resembling a sow and piglets - Hence "pig iron". As the pigs cool, the surrounding air reaches its dew point, and beads of moisture form on the surface of the pigs. "Sweating like a pig" indicates that the pig has cooled enough to be moved in safety.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_references_to_pigs

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justarandomperson
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11 Feb 2011, 9:12 am

I sometimes have trouble with metaphors in communication because they're often worse than the alternative. Someone once said "you are a robot" in defense of a strike against me. I responded "no, I'm a human being." To me, that seemed perfectly logical. "You are robotic" would have worked much better. To call me a robot in that instant just seemed wrong.

Asp-Z
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11 Feb 2011, 9:12 am

wavefreak58 wrote:

Asp-Z wrote:

A really illogical one is "sweating like a pig." Pigs can't sweat.

You're right, of course. But how aspie is it that I just HAD to look up the origin of the phrase?

Quote:

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_references_to_pigs

Ha, that's actually quite interesting, thanks for that

I actually looked up why BlackBerries got their name recently - a less interesting story, some marketing guys said it sounded good basically, but they were originally gonna call them StrawBerries, which I found funny

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11 Feb 2011, 9:16 am

I like the phrases that would be gruesome if you took them literally.

"Keep your nose to the grindstone."

"Keep your eyes peeled"

"If I have another piece of cake I'll burst."

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11 Feb 2011, 9:27 am

Then there's the truly impossible:

Pie in the Sky (What? A Salvador Dali painting?)

On Cloud Nine (I never finish counting them)

Empty Headed (I guess concussions aren't a problem)

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auntblabby
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11 Feb 2011, 11:14 am

the late george carlin had a few gems, my favorite of which is [paraphrased]-

"take a [dump]- you don't TAKE a [dump], you LEAVE a [dump]- that's the whole idea!"

then there is the rhyming phrase from the musical My Fair Lady-

"the rain in spain falls mainly on the plain" - this is not accurate because in spain, the rain falls mainly in the mountains, while the plains remain hot and dry much of the time.

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11 Feb 2011, 6:44 pm

Janissy wrote:

I like the phrases that would be gruesome if you took them literally.

"Keep your nose to the grindstone."

"Keep your eyes peeled"

"If I have another piece of cake I'll burst."

"Kill two birds with one stone."

"Shooting fish in a barrel."

"Not enough room to swing a cat."

Oh and once a teacher said to a student: "You're just sitting there with your finger up your bum."

WHAT?

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CrinklyCrustacean
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11 Feb 2011, 6:45 pm

Bluefins wrote:

CrinklyCrustacean wrote:

It can be too little, or too late, but not both.

Sure it could. If you needed 1kg flour by 12.00 and got 500g by 13.00, that'd be too little and too late.

but doesn't the "and too late" implie that it would have been acceptable if it was delivered on time?

Last edited by CrinklyCrustacean on 11 Feb 2011, 6:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Zen
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11 Feb 2011, 6:48 pm

pensieve wrote:

Oh and once a teacher said to a student: "You're just sitting there with your finger up your bum."

WHAT?

Someone said that to me once and I was really offended. I most certainly was not!

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11 Feb 2011, 6:50 pm

CrinklyCrustacean wrote:

Bluefins wrote:

CrinklyCrustacean wrote:

It can be too little, or too late, but not both.

Sure it could. If you needed 1kg flour by 12.00 and got 500g by 13.00, that'd be too little and too late.

but doesn't the "and too late" implie that it would have been acceptable if it was delivered on time?

I've always assumed it was a compounded error - either is unacceptable, but both? Disastrous!

RomanceAnonimo
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11 Feb 2011, 7:06 pm

CrinklyCrustacean wrote:

Bluefins wrote:

CrinklyCrustacean wrote:

It can be too little, or too late, but not both.

Sure it could. If you needed 1kg flour by 12.00 and got 500g by 13.00, that'd be too little and too late.

but doesn't the "and too late" implie that it would have been acceptable if it was delivered on time?

The best way to describe this is the regretful spouse. IE the wife complains that the husband is lazy, rude, unaffectionate, etc. The wife gets fed up and tells the husband she wants a divorce. The husband says "but I've been trying". The wife says "too little, too late". It is a compound statement, implying that even if it weren't too late, it still would be too little.

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11 Feb 2011, 10:50 pm

CrinklyCrustacean wrote:

The first one is also to some extent based upon the similarity of word "little" and "late" both having "L" and "T" as their first two consonant.
Even I had trouble with the second one. I guess this is the way neurotypical brain intuitively see situations i.e. superficially. However, there can be a meaning to it. If there is bad area in a city and crime takes place with someone at a particular place, then he/she was in a wrong place at the wrong time.

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