get (hold of) the wrong end of the stick (informal)
Sometimes "the wrong end of the stick" is just "the wrong way of looking at a problem or solution." I have a very dear friend who is an amazing English as a Second Language teacher. Part of the reason she's so good at reaching non-English speaking kids is that English is her second, (or maybe even third), language. Her first language is Turkish. Occasionally, she'd need clarification about one of our wonderful English (American) idioms. Every time I come across a figure of speech that isn't used often, I send a mental shout out to Sibel. Sometimes, I even send them to her. She's getting this blog post in an email. ;)
Back to my current tangent. Do you ever find yourself doing something the hard way, only to realize halfway through that there was a much, much simpler way to handle the situation? Like instead of carrying 14 grocery bags to the house and then kicking the door hoping someone will let you in, only to break the handle on one bag, and squish the bread, maybe you should have carried four bags and opened the door yourself? I'm sure that's only happened to me.
The simple solution. How do we get to that FIRST? How can we program our minds to quickly evaluate the easiest, most time-saving method of solving problems without having to go through so much trial and error? I know that's a deep question. When you find the answer let me know.
Why the introspection? Because the other night, when it was so cold here, (yes, 19 degrees is cold for Austin, TX), when I realized that our blanket was staticky, I actually turned off the light and rubbed the cat on the blanket to try to see a spark. It would have been SO much simpler to rub the blanket on the cat. But that didn't occur to me until the next day. See why I need help?
And yes, cats spark. But they don't much like it.
to not understand a situation correctly
Cambridge Idioms Dictionary, 2nd ed. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2006
Back to my current tangent. Do you ever find yourself doing something the hard way, only to realize halfway through that there was a much, much simpler way to handle the situation? Like instead of carrying 14 grocery bags to the house and then kicking the door hoping someone will let you in, only to break the handle on one bag, and squish the bread, maybe you should have carried four bags and opened the door yourself? I'm sure that's only happened to me.
The simple solution. How do we get to that FIRST? How can we program our minds to quickly evaluate the easiest, most time-saving method of solving problems without having to go through so much trial and error? I know that's a deep question. When you find the answer let me know.
Why the introspection? Because the other night, when it was so cold here, (yes, 19 degrees is cold for Austin, TX), when I realized that our blanket was staticky, I actually turned off the light and rubbed the cat on the blanket to try to see a spark. It would have been SO much simpler to rub the blanket on the cat. But that didn't occur to me until the next day. See why I need help?
And yes, cats spark. But they don't much like it.
Comments
Post a Comment