Reply to Johnstone’s “50 Proverbs”

Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day. You’ll have him out of your hair until he comes by tomorrow for his next fish.

Teaching him to fish will feel like teaching a walrus to roller-skate. As soon as you break out the fishing rod he’ll look at you like you come from the seventeenth century – like you tried to tell him he could knap his own spearheads with a hammerstone and pair of reindeer antlers. He hasn’t got time to screw about with bait and fishing rods and sinkers. He just wants a fish.

Even if you get him to try it, he’ll just pretend to pay attention and spend most of the time fantasising about the woman in apartment twelve.

Give the man a fish.

Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

  • You might also like

    • Second Floor: Ladies Cocktail Frocks And Model Gowns

      It took me a long time to stop misreading the title of this novel as The Woman in Black. I think it’s because my to-be-read pile also contains Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White.* This missing plural meant that the introduction of a swathe of women in black in the early … Continue reading