On Apples and Oranges


2022-08-07

When someone attempts to compare two incomparable things, a frequent reply is, "it's like apples and oranges". This phrase has always seemed very odd to me, as apples, oranges, and indeed all fruit are very easy to compare. They all serve the same purpose (providing energy and nutrients to the suits of flesh we inhabit), are percieved using the same method (taste receptor cells on the tongue and olfactory receptors within the nasal cavity), and (at least with common fruits like apples and oranges) are relatively homogeneous as a category.

To demonstrate how easy it is to compare apples with oranges, I will do it right now: I like oranges more than apples.

A more apt analogy would feature completely different types of objects (eg. apples and 3cm cubes of bronze), or different kinds of nouns entirely (eg. the northwesternmost point of Andorra and the feeling of desperate enthusiasm). Please amend your idiolect to feature a more appropriate phrase at once.


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