post: phrases

site-src/phrases.mdx

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+---
+title: Mehbark's voice box
+description: The origins and variations of some phrases that I often say to myself and others
+tags: post,short,living
+date: 2026-01-26 02:00:00 -5
+---
+
+I wanted to describe the origins and variations of some phrases that I often say to myself and others (mostly myself), so I did.
+Try and stop me (actually please don't you'd probably succeed).
+
+## Thaaaaaat’s politics!
+Bear guy in Snowdin says it [in Undertale](https://hushbugger.github.io/dialogue/#Politics%20Bear).
+Twice, apparently!
+He then returns in Deltarune to [say it again](https://hushbugger.github.io/deltarune/text/#en:1:obj_npc_room_slash_Other_10_gml_1097_0).
+
+These are short, funny jokes, but I just repeat the punchline until it's meaningless.
+It's fun to say and it fits when literally anything happens.
+You can even change the “politics” part!
+
+## A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush
+I have no clue where I got this from.
+[It's in the 1893 classic _A Hand-book of Proverbs_](https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Hand_book_of_Proverbs/eEBHAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA72&dq=hand), but believe it or not, I haven't read this before!
+
+This phrase is a case of it's kinda funny because it's true.
+It has a lot of room for inane variation, for example:
+- “A bird in the hand is worth two bushes.”
+- “What is a bird in the bush worth to you? A bird in the hand?”
+- “Birds!! Hands! Bird in the hand two birds.”
+
+And it combines well with other phrases.
+
+## Everybody learns to read, but nobody knows how to read a book
+A complete original.
+It's so stupid (it's not even true!) that you can say it whenever and it won't make any less sense.
+I believe this is a variation of “learn to read a book,” which is a destabilizingly incongruous (non-)insult.
+
+- “Everybody learns to read, but nobody knows what bird in the hand even is.”
+- “You know how to learn to read, but do you know what a book is?”
+- “Everybody learns to read a book!” (in a particularly silly voice)
+
+## man, computers are incredible
+Said sincerely over five years ago in a Discord guild I haven't been in for over three years.
+I kept saying it every day.
+For half a decade.
+I made a Discord guild to keep saying it, and it's the only one I still regularly use.
+
+And I still mean it.
+
+If you were wondering, I write it in the Discord app on my phone before I go to sleep and send the message when I wake up;
+it only takes a few taps to write thanks to Gboard.