(such as why the bleep do tunnles have so many lightbulbs near it's exit?)

The answer is a stone's throw away... It's "killing two birds with one stone" precisely because the "stone" specifies the means; "killing two birds with one throw" would be ambiguous.

mggsbms wrote on 04 Jun 2025 13:29:

Fine, fine for heavens's sake let it just be "frying two latkes in one pan" or something like that, where you have both the means and the action in an unambiguous way.

azivashacheit101 wrote on 04 Jun 2025 15:28:

There’s absolutely no comparison . Frying  two latkes in one pan is no feat at all- because the pan is equally effective for two as for one, there’s no Chiddush or Kuntz. Similarly said, if someone were to kill two birds with one blast of birdshot, he wouldn’t get any credit. Using a single stone, in the other hand, is quite a feat. It takes considerable skill, dexterity, determination, years of practice, a healthy dollop of Mazal, and even then is highly unlikely.

There’s absolutely no comparison . Frying  two latkes in one pan is no feat at all- because the pan is equally effective for two as for one, there’s no Chiddush or Kuntz. Similarly said, if someone were to kill two birds with one blast of birdshot, he wouldn’t get any credit. Using a single stone, in the other hand, is quite a feat. It takes considerable skill, dexterity, determination, years of practice, a healthy dollop of Mazal, and even then is highly unlikely.

OK OK, so how about "balancing two peices of gala on one spoonCRACKER". That has both the means and the action in an unambiguous way, is quite a feat, takes considerable skill, dexterity, determination, year of practice, a healthy dollop of Mazal, and even then is highly unlikely.

azivashacheit101 wrote on 04 Jun 2025 15:58:

What a litvak...

Troll Sat Alone on His Seat of Stone 
by J. R. R. Tolkien

Troll sat alone on his seat of stone,
And munched and mumbled a bare old bone;
For many a year he had gnawed it near,
For meat was hard to come by.
Done by! Gum by!
In a cave in the hills he dwelt alone,
And meat was hard to come by.

Up came Tom with his big boots on.
Said he to Troll: 'Pray, what is yon?
For it looks like the shin o' my nuncle Tim.
As should be a-lyin' in the graveyard.
Caveyard! Paveyard!
This many a year has Tim been gone,
And I thought he were lyin' in the graveyard.'

'My lad,' said Troll, 'this bone I stole.
But what be bones that lie in a hole?
Thy nuncle was dead as a lump o' lead,
Afore I found his shinbone.
Tinbone! Skinbone!
He can spare a share for a poor old troll,
For he don't need his shinbone.'

Said Tom: 'I don't see why the likes o' thee
Without axin' leave should go makin' free
With the shank or the shin o' my father's kin;
So hand the old bone over!
Rover! Trover!
Though dead he be, it belongs to he;
So hand the old bone over!'

'For a couple o' pins,' says Troll, and grins,
'I'll eat thee too, and gnaw thy shins.
A bit o' fresh meat will go down sweet!
I'll try my teeth on thee now.
Hee now! See now!
I'm tired o' gnawing old bones and skins;
I've a mind to dine on thee now.'

But just as he thought his dinner was caught,
He found his hands had hold of naught.
Before he could mind, Tom slipped behind
And gave him the boot to larn him.
Warn him! Darn him!
A bump o' the boot on the seat, Tom thought,
Would be the way to larn him.

But harder than stone is the flesh and bone
Of a troll that sits in the hills alone.
As well set your boot to the mountain's root,
For the seat of a troll don't feel it.
Peel it! Heal it!
Old Troll laughed, when he heard Tom groan,
And he knew his toes could feel it.

Tom's leg is game, since home he came,
And his bootless foot is lasting lame;
But Troll don't care, and he's still there
With the bone he boned from its owner.
Doner! Boner!
Troll's old seat is still the same,
And the bone he boned from its owner !

All the talking earlier about stones made me remember an old favorite, by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

 If somebody has the hiccups, how do we refer to what happened?
 To clarify, do I say “I hiccuped”? Or, as I believe makes more sense, do I say “I hicced up” (hicked? That looks too much like nature walking and the like. “Hicced” it is).