{"id":12566,"date":"2009-06-26T19:45:26","date_gmt":"2009-06-26T19:45:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2009\/06\/26\/apples-and-sparkplugs\/"},"modified":"2009-06-26T19:45:26","modified_gmt":"2009-06-26T19:45:26","slug":"apples-and-sparkplugs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2009\/06\/26\/apples-and-sparkplugs\/","title":{"rendered":"Apples and Sparkplugs"},"content":{"rendered":"

All too frequently people say, \u2018You\u2019re comparing apples and oranges\u2019 in order to convey the idea that two things are so dissimilar as to to disallow any significant comparison. Can\u2019t they do better than this? Apples and oranges are highly comparable in respects too numerous to mention. Both are fruits, both are edible, both grow on trees, both are good sources of fiber, both contain Vitamin C, etc.<\/p>\n

Why not say, \u2018You are comparing apples and sparkplugs\u2019? Apples are naturally occurrent and edible while sparkplugs are inedible artifacts. That\u2019s a serious difference.<\/p>\n

This reminds me of a story I read as a boy in my hometown newspaper, the Post Advocate<\/em>. (We paper boys called it the Pest Aggravate<\/em>.) A man  ate an entire car, sparkplugs and all. A feat of automotive asceticism to rival the pillar antics of Simon Stylites.  <\/font>He did it by cutting the car and its parts into small pieces that he then washed down with generous libations of buttermilk.<\/p>\n

But a car is not just solid parts, but various fluids. You\u2019ve got your gasoline, your crankcase oil, your tranny fluid, not to mention coolant, windshield wiper liquid, and what all else. How did he negotiate that stuff? Well, I suppose anything can be passed throught the gastrointestinal system if sufficiently watered down. So if a man gets it into his head to eat an entire car, he can do it. As my 4th grade teacher Sr. Elizabeth (Lizard) Marie used to say, "Where there\u2019s a will there\u2019s a way."
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All too frequently people say, \u2018You\u2019re comparing apples and oranges\u2019 in order to convey the idea that two things are so dissimilar as to to disallow any significant comparison. Can\u2019t they do better than this? Apples and oranges are highly comparable in respects too numerous to mention. Both are fruits, both are edible, both grow … Continue reading “Apples and Sparkplugs”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-language-matters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12566\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}