Apples to....Oranges?

I hear this expression all the time.   "It's like comparing apples to oranges."  Writers I really respect use it as a default cliche, apparently intending to convey that the comparison between two entities is unsound.  I see it a lot in baseball history, for example, where someone writes something like this:

"...comparing Rice's failure to draw walks to Martinez's lack of 20-win seasons is mixing apples and oranges."  -- From Rich Lederer's excellent piece on Jim Rice and the Hall of Fame on Baseball Anaylsts. (This is just the most recent example).

Here's what I have to say:

THIS IS A STUPID METAPHOR.

Why?

BECAUSE APPLES AND ORANGES ARE EMINENTLY COMPARABLE.  To wit:

-- Both are fruit, containing similar nutrients and similar nutritional value.
-- Both are roughly the same size and weight.
-- Both are often standard options for school lunch bags.
-- Both are purchased in the same section of the grocery store.

And I could go on.  Yes, there are differences (and the point of comparison, after all, is to elucidate differences as well as similarities).  But by and large, if you are trying to think of an apt metaphor to indicate that a particular comparison is spurious or ill-advised, why are you utilizing two things that are so incredibly similar to illustrate that point?

Why, for example, don't we begin to use the following expressions:

It's like comparing...

apples to perjury
apples to microscopic soil filaments found on the Saturnian satellite Enceladus
apples to meat loaf
apples to projectile vomiting
apples to Nietzsche's concept of eternal recurrence

These metaphors make sense.

Comparing apples to oranges seems like a fairly reasonable thing.

When you see or hear someone do this, please point them towards this blog. Maybe this is something we can actually change in our lifetime.

Fight the good fight, people.

Comments

[Anonymous]

Maybe the point is that they're similar enough for people to make the comparison, but different enough to not make the comparison a valid one in some cases?

[jds]

My anonymous friend does make a valid point -- if the apples to oranges statement was used in making comparisons that are on the face somewhat reasonable, then I agree it would be an apt metaphor. My point, at least as I was intending to make it, is that people say "It's like comparing apples to oranges" when they are comparing two things that are so disparate so as to make the act of comparison ridiculous. I don't think that people use this metaphor when they are pursuing nuance -- that's certainly not the case with the Lederer example I cite above, wherein it is posited as ridiculous to compare one players pitching statistics to another player's hitting statistics.

[Gail]

I couldn't agree with you more!! What a TIRED cliche!!!!!!

[NotSupposedToBeDoingThisAtWork(ButNowI'mHome)]

I think this is just one of those old sayings that people use without actually /thinking/ about it. Something that drives me completely stark raving, as well.

COuld we maybe compare apples to waffles? mmm waffles...

[Russell Miller]

I think anyone who uses the phrase "apples to oranges" is using it rhetorically - and thus probably is responding to a comparison that someone has put forth as reasonable. This is always a response, never original.

"I think this is like something else..."

"Are you kidding? That's like comparing apples to oranges!"

I dunno. I don't see a problem with it. Seems like splitting hairs to me. Oops. No one actually splits a hair, so we need to find another metaphor. See my point? :)

[Melisma]

An alternate version I liked was "That's like comparing apples to orange kittens."

[(the original) Mel]

I like your blog. Read Douglas Adams? Your writing style reminds me of him. Good and fun and smart.

[(the original) Mel]

I like your blog. Read Douglas Adams? Your writing style reminds me of him. Good and fun and smart.

[anner]

so happy to see you have a blog, berthaservant! reading your comments on CO for the last year+ has made me eager to hear more of what you have to say. so here i am commenting on a post you made back in april.

i think the implication, when someone uses this simile (because it's a simile! not a metaphor!) is that the person they are addressing THOUGHT they were comparing apples to apples. but the two things they were comparing, while both the same category of thing (fruit) were not the same type of think in that category. but never mind my hair-splitting...it's still an overused and trite phrase!