Re: Question about an English expression

Yoon Ha Lee scripsit:

> I think I encountered it maybe in one of Anne McCaffrey's books, but I
> won't swear to it.  Did it end, "we'd walk on the sea"? or something
> remotely close to that?
A google has turned up:

...we'd all be throwing nets/cast nets.
...we'd have a fine stew.
...we'd all be well fed.
...we'd all have a fry/mess.
...no one would ever go hungry.
...there'd be no room for water.
...we'd be walking on the sea/on water.
...I'd be out of bait.
...we'd all have ponds.
...they'd stink on the third day.
...we'd live in the sea.
...I'd have a whole basketful/bucketful.
...we'd all get fugu poisoning.
...I'd feed all of China.
...we'd all be swimming in the sea.
...we'd all eat for free.
...we'd eat for a year.
...I'd be floating downstream.
...the world would smell bad.
...we'd be up to our necks in sushi.
...there'd be no room in the sea.
...then no man would starve.
...we'd have trout for breakfast.
...we'd all have full tanks.
...we'd never want for food.
...we'd all spoil the broth.
...I'd have a tuna sandwich.
...we'd all smell like a can of sardines.
...then pigs would fly.
...I'd feed the world.
...dinner would be awfully boring.
...the antecedent of this conditional would be true.

--
John Cowan                                   cowan@ccil.org
One art/there is/no less/no more/All things/to do/with sparks/galore
        --Douglas Hofstadter

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