“You Take the Cake!” (& Other Ruined Expressions)

“No, Really:  Bring . . the . . Cake!”

Thanks to popular culture, some perfectly innocuous phrases have been ruined.

To pick just one example, son #2 and I were bringing his birthday cake, ice cream, etc. to the party room where we were hosting his friends the other weekend.

My hands were full, so I casually told him, “you take the cake” (I’m sure he had no idea that the phrase has another meaning).

Example #2:  good luck telling a vendor who hasn’t received your payment that you already sent it (“the check’s in the mail . . .really!”).

P.S.:  One of my favorite Mad Magazine cartoons shows a food stand advertising every kind of burger known to man: ‘Buffalo burgers,’ ‘Chicken burgers,’ Turkey burgers,’ ‘Veggie burgers,’ and on and on.

The caption: ‘we have some with ham, too, but we don’t know what to call them.’

See also, “Synonyms for ‘the check’s in the mail“; “Non-Traditional” vs. “Regular” Sales; “What’s the Past Tense of Sight See?”; “Landmark — or Watermark?”; “Dried vs. MORE Dried Apricots“; “Wild and Crazy” (vs. Conventional) Fruit“; and “What’s the Opposite of ‘Untold Riches?



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