Asklemmy

43835 readers

714 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

Open-ended question
Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Lemmyverse: community search
sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
!lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

What is a quote you see everywhere that you absolutely hate? (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 1 year ago by elkaki@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

160 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] dark776174657273@lemmy.sdf.org 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I wondered about this for years and years, never understanding, especially, since "having cake" and "eating cake" are used interchangeably. But, I finally figured it out! In this sense, the "having" is equivalent to "keeping" or "being in possession of."

Examples:

"What's it like having a Mercedes Benz?"
"The Smiths have a very nice home."

No eating implied!

Therefore, the saying is more inline with "You can't keep (to show off or admire) your cake, and eat it, too."

[–] snowe@programming.dev 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

But you can. Just cut a hole in the bottom and eat it from there. Then it’s presentable and edible.

[–] Robaque@feddit.it 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Ok smartass