13 June 2008

94. "Don't Count Your Chickens Before They Hatch" (13 Jun 08)

Okay, more a proverb than a superstition. However...


Of course you're not going to count your chickens before they hatch! Because before they hatch, they're not chickens! They're eggs! Of course, if it was…


Don't count your eggs before they hatch


…that would make a lot more sense.


Wouldn't it…?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah, but do eggs actually hatch? Or do chickens hatch?... out of eggs?If so, and you wait for your eggs to hatch before counting them, it'll never happen. Maybe it'd just be easier and less confusing to say, "count your chickens and your eggs separately." Or even, "Relax: There are more important things than the number of eggs and chickens you have."

M

Anonymous said...

Plus, if you wait until an egg has broken allowing whatever it contains to escape, then the ensuing chaos and proliferation of shell bits would make it very difficult to count anything...depending how many you had in the first place, of course.

M

Dan/pepsoid said...

OK, let's clear this up. According to the Encarta English Dictionary, "hatch" means...

1. come out of egg
2. break open for release of young
3. cause young to emerge from egg

Ahh, now I'm even more confused! :/