Will Mark Carney’s statement about the new world order be the quote of the year ?
“If we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu.”
I think it will be the quote of the year if it comes to pass - Greenland gets invaded, Cuba gets invaded, and there’s news we’re starting military preparations for Canada being invaded.
And what about this phrase? Quoteinvestigator.com looked into this idiom and gives a chronological sampling of variations:
1993 Sep: At the Table or on the Menu? 2002 Jul: If you are not at the table, then you could be on the menu 2003 Mar: Instead of being on the menu, we have a seat at the table 2003 Jun: You’re either at the table, or you’re on the menu 2004 Apr: If you’re not at the table, you’re probably on the menu
The sources of the people and events are HERE. It is interesting that more than a few are attributed to women.
I wonder when or if AI will be able to give a count of the number of occurrences it has in its databases. It claims this expression has been used “countless times.” AI seems more human than not as it claims it can count specific phrases in text but somehow then can’t count this one. And then that it uses the phrase “countless times” like some excuse.
Take a look at the idiom “countless” with its meaning “very, very many times, too many to actually count.” This is an AI euphemism - because the actual definition of countless is: “an extremely large, innumerable, or infinite number that is impossible or impractical to count, like countless stars.”
So AI concludes, after my several promptings, that given the widespread use of this idiom in business, politics, and daily life over the past 30+ years, the phrase “at the table” has been used in this context thousands, if not millions, of times.”
And I’ve noticed that Google has stopped giving the retrieval count in the overview. In the Tools section, it says 4,400,400 results. I guess AI and Google don’t really talk to each other.
Here’s a graffiti image - paint over leaves on a wall.
No comments:
Post a Comment