Ever sat in a meeting and someone proclaims that you can “kill two birds with one stone” when taking some form of action or that “there’s more than one way to skin a cat”?
These are two examples of how over time certain sayings have become entrenched in everyday English parlance. There are more acceptable sayings, such as “two peas in a pod” but the negative ones are stuck in my mind because whenever they are used I grimace.
Surely we should adapt the negative ones, making them animal neutral? There have been some suggestions as to what alternatives there could be, for example:
- kill two birds with one stone = feed two birds with one seed
- there is more than one way to skin a cat = there is more than one way to bake a cake
Now, it is not that I have ” a bone to pick with you” or should I say, I have “a bean to pick with you” but do your best to use sayings that are neutral, try not to be “as blind as a bat” or rather “as blind as a turnip” and “don’t make a monkey of someone” or better said, “make a fool of someone”. Think of this suggestion when it is “raining cats and dogs outside” or more acceptably said to be “raining waterfalls outside”.
(With thanks to Beauty Without Cruelty SA’s article on expressions which lists alternative animal friendly expressions or sayings)
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On a different note, I finally got to Raw and Roxy in Woodstock, Cape Town. It is a small raw vegan restaurant. I ordered the lasagne to take away. Filled with red pesto, macadamia nut spread and sheets of baby marrow, I had good intentions of sharing it with my better half. It was so good, I wolfed (should I say I “gobbled”) it down with nothing left for my better half to taste. Remember: raw food is very filling. I should probably have had only half the portion!
Raw and Roxy can be found on Facebook and at 300 Albert Road, Woodstock.
Sweet treats at Raw and Roxy