Volume VII: April Fools' Day

I. A sharper knife won’t make a better chef 🧑‍🍳

First recorded in a 19th-century French kitchen manual, this phrase reminded apprentice chefs that skill — not tools — makes the master. It later sliced its way into Nottingham, England, where Luddites used it to critique the growing obsession with machinery. With AI everywhere we look, it’s fair to say they were well ahead of their time.

II. He’d pay a ticket before he’d pay the meter 🎟️

Said to have started in 1950s New York, where parking spots were few and far between, it was used to portray businessmen who refused to waste time digging for change, figuring the occasional fine was just the cost of doing business. By the ‘70s, it became shorthand for anyone who ignored small inconveniences, only to pay a bigger price later.

III. Packing some pudding 🍮

This isn’t intended to be about a dessert you pack in your kid’s lunchbox — though the results might be related. Likely born in early 20th-century Australia, this phrase referred to someone putting on weight, like a pudding thickening as it sets. It spread through working-class pubs, where a well-fed bloke might get ribbed for “packing some pudding” after one too many pints. The Brits, as they typically do, gave it a London twist — if someone mutters you’re “packing some porridge” after you devour an English breakfast, feel free to hurl your tea in protest.

IV. Every pumpkin is known by its stem 🎃

This Hebrew proverb means people are recognized by their distinct traits — just as pumpkins can be identified by their stems. It’s a poetic way of suggesting your roots always show in some form, whether you want them to or not. Maybe it’s a badge of honor or perhaps an Achilles’ heel, but the stem always tells a story.

V. Even a lighthouse can’t steer a ship 🚢

This saying, passed around 18th-century Welsh harbors, was a sailor’s way of saying: guidance is one thing, doing the work is another. A lighthouse may show you where the rocks are, but it won’t keep you off them. Captains would drop this line when storms brewed or high tide approached — a salty reminder that the light can guide you, but it’s still you at the bow.

One of these is real — any idea which?