Has anyone ever actually stolen a cookie from a cookie jar?

@SatyrService Uh-huh! And?

@Serenitree AND since the original question was
[quote]Has anyone ever actually stolen a cookie from a cookie jar?[/quote]
the linguistic exploitation above is to illuminate that it is NOT actually about stealing cookies, as the questioner queried incredulously
Metaphor, in this time of tweets and twits..
is becoming swamped by person that take all such thing literally.

@SatyrService I see. Taken in that context, I get why you felt it important to explain.

Yet, I bet there aren't many who have never taken a cookie, without asking. Or after being told not to.

@SatyrService It's kind of like explaining that when accused of cutting another man's grass that it isn't really grass. Or the grass being greener. I just didn't realize that there were people who didn't know what the true meaning was.....or what cookies represented.

thank you @Serenitree metaphor and simile are less understood in a time when detailed thought, is out of fashion.
consider "the carrot and the stick"
most think that means a reward,, the carrot or punishment
the stick.
but it is from a different idea

a man is driving a cart pulled by a donkey. the donkey does not want to move,
so the man ties a carrot, to a stick and hold the stick out in front of the donkey, dangling the carrot in front of his face

the donkey moves forward to get the carrot, BUT
it is ever out of reach so the carrot and stick means
[b]a reward, promised, but never delivered.[/b]
a more complex idea, and Not at all about reward and punishment

@Serenitree Oh thank you for the Un stolen cookies

@SatyrService 😉You're welcome.

@SatyrService Carrots! Yay. I just made veggie dip, and carrots are my favourite.

I did know that about the carrots and the donkey. It's the same with the racing greyhounds and the rabbit.

@Serenitree I KNOW! right? yet i keep hearing folks use these metaphors and getting them wrong or taking them literally

kinda like the word literally! a lot of people use it to mean
Kinda Like Real.
"It literally killed me!"

@SatyrService Yup, and some think that literally and virtually mean the same thing. But, language is slippery. There was a time when hippy meant you had broad hips.

@Serenitree i really love watching language change,, but
i think we would do wll to keep some of our more presice meanings,,
like Awesome. to mean, [i]Stunned! Awestruck! mouth open in disbelief [/i]
not just "pretty good"

@SatyrService I bought my granddaughter a gift I thought she'd love. When she opened it up, her eyes filled with tears and she said "Oh Nana, this is sick." I was shocked. Turns out sick meant wonderful. I can't keep up with it. Hot is cool. Sick is great. Bad is good. And others.

@Serenitree I try to keep up!