When my parents got married, they decided that there are some things that are difficult to say and therefore should be replaced with numbers. Only one survived actual use. In their family “number two” means, in my family it still means, “You were right and I was wrong.”
Another reason is that it is short, easy to say. The second reason is that using number reminds the speaker and audience that admitting a mistake is a difficult and beautiful thing to do, making it easier to do. The third reason is that using a family code reminds the speaker that they are talking to people they love, so they are less likely to use the opportunity to admit a mistake to put them down.
My dad used to like the phrase “There’s no such thing as a free lunch,” sometimes shortened to TANSTAAFL. He eventually stopped using it on the grounds that it was not true, that both the consumer and producer surplus were, in effect, a free lunch. He replaced it and said “Always look at the gift horse in the mouth.”
The phrases he continued to use included “A bad carpenter blames his tools,” “It is a great mistake to make an enemy too good” and Cromwell’s “I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible by mistake.” He referred to my carrying too many logs from the barn to the fireplace in a few trips as a lazy load.
Here is the complete Substack post.
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