I just saw an email advertising a \u201cthree-day flash sale,\u201d but I misread it as a \u201cthree-day fish sale.\u201d<\/p>\r\n
Which led me, of course, to Ben Franklin\u2019s saying about fish and guests; that turns out to derive from John Lyly\u2019s 1578 book Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit<\/a><\/cite>, which includes the line \u201cfish and guests in three days are stale.\u201d<\/p>\r\n And a footnote in at least some editions of that book suggests that that line comes originally from Plautus<\/a>. Turns out his play Asinaria<\/a><\/cite> (a.k.a. The One with the Asses<\/cite>, which sounds like the title of a Friends<\/cite> episode) includes the line \u201cQuasi piscis itidem est amator lenae: nequam est nisi recens.\u201d I suppose I ought to ask someone who knows Latin what that means, but instead I\u2019ll give you Google Translate\u2019s translation of it: \u201cLovers are like fish in the same way no good until recently.\u201d<\/p>\r\n Hmm, I see that in some renditions, there\u2019s a comma after that est<\/i>. Google Translate does better if you include that comma: \u201cIn the same way as fish Lovers are no good unless fresh.\u201d<\/p>\r\n