Community Chat

[MacDUFF]

Merriam-Webster definition of proverb...

: a brief popular saying (such as “Too many cooks spoil the broth”) that gives advice about how people should live or that expresses a belief that is generally thought to be true.

Too many cooks spoil the broth??   I've always heard it:  Too many cooks spoil the soup!   

help. me!!

[Moonchilde]

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@MacDUFF wrote:

Merriam-Webster definition of proverb...

: a brief popular saying (such as “Too many cooks spoil the broth”) that gives advice about how people should live or that expresses a belief that is generally thought to be true.

Too many cooks spoil the broth??   I've always heard it:  Too many cooks spoil the soup!   

help. me!!

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Broth is how I've always heard it.

[Ms tyrion2]

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@Moonchilde wrote:

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@MacDUFF wrote:

Merriam-Webster definition of proverb...

: a brief popular saying (such as “Too many cooks spoil the broth”) that gives advice about how people should live or that expresses a belief that is generally thought to be true.

Too many cooks spoil the broth??   I've always heard it:  Too many cooks spoil the soup!   

help. me!!

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Broth is how I've always heard it.

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I've always heard broth too. Never soup.

[MsLomo]

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@MacDUFF wrote:

@ms traditional

@magicmoodz

Rookie nerds!  I kid, I kid!   

Unless something has changed in the last 15 years or so, I believe that, if you are going to change/tweak a word in a quote, you would use brackets to so indicate…i.e., “the proof is [not] in the pudding.”   I would also put it in italics so the reader would really get the idea.  But, even doing that wouldn't be acceptable to real nerds.  

To be as clear as possible, the sentence should read something like, “Saying ‘the proof is in the pudding’ is incorrect.  The correct proverb is [fill in with correct proverb].”

That said, ITA with OP and thank her because I have always wondered about that proverb (and, surprisingly, never researched it)...it never made much sense!  

And, I'm with @Tinkrbl44... “I could care less.”   Nooooo!   You “could not care less.”

Too bad I don't have time to proof my post because I think I should have put a comma after the word "proverb" (in its first usage in the second paragraph) and after "...pudding."  Plus, I'm not at home, so I can't refer to my Strunk and White (thereby proving beyond a shadow of a doubt what a nerd I really am!).  

I’m off to grab that box of Nerds from the squirrel.

Carry on.

@MsLomo, do you still post here?

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Hi, @MacDUFF! Yes, I am here! You know how much I love these threads! 

I am familiar with the saying, "The proof of the pudding is in the eating." Some people like to shorten "sayings" in conversation by adding "and all that" at the end of an abbreviated version, such as, "The proof of the pudding, and all that." 

Regarding your sentence, I agree with inserting a comma (or colon if the proverb is long) in the second sentence after "is." 

Spoiler

I'll take a couple of those Nerds, please!  

[QueenDanceALot]

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@MacDUFF wrote:

Merriam-Webster definition of proverb...

: a brief popular saying (such as “Too many cooks spoil the broth”) that gives advice about how people should live or that expresses a belief that is generally thought to be true.

Too many cooks spoil the broth??   I've always heard it:  Too many cooks spoil the soup!   

help. me!!

---

@MacDUFF

At a friend's house where we frequently gather for holidays and such, there are always a LOT of people in the rather small kitchen and sometimes with all the talking and catching up somebody forgets something should come out of the oven, so over there it's been "too many cooks burn the biscuits!"

[febe1]

I love proverbs and their meanings. It doesn't bother me if they go wrong....

[QueenDanceALot]

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@febe1 wrote:

I love proverbs and their meanings. It doesn't bother me if they go wrong....

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I think it's kinda fun when they get changed up.

[occasionalrain]

No one I know says the proof is in the pudding, must be regional. We say it the correct way, after all, plums are what's in the pudding.

[Citrine1]

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@MacDUFF wrote:

Merriam-Webster definition of proverb...

: a brief popular saying (such as “Too many cooks spoil the broth”) that gives advice about how people should live or that expresses a belief that is generally thought to be true.

Too many cooks spoil the broth??   I've always heard it:  Too many cooks spoil the soup!   

help. me!!

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I've always heard it as "too many cooks spoil the stew".  

[QueenDanceALot]

I've always heard "the proof is in the pudding".

Guess I grew up on the wrong side of the tracks.