The Difference Between…

I keep a thread on mastodon (and previously on twitter) of simple differences. Here is a selection of my favorites, which I’ll update and shuffle around as I see fit.

• The difference between free-range and pasteurized
• The difference between ice and hard water
• The difference between vanilla (or chocolate, or coffee) flavored ice cream and bean flavored ice cream
• The difference between voiding a check and cache invalidation
• The difference between self-aware and self-conscious
• The difference between “confine yourself to quarters” and “go to your room”
• The difference between “that’s an order” and “because I said so”
• The difference between “incorporated” and “made flesh”
• The difference between a corp, a corps, and a corpse
• The difference between talking about something and talking around something
• The difference between insightful and inciteful
• The difference between momentous and momentary
• The difference between the news and reality tv
• The difference between a doomscroller and a couch potato
• The difference between learning of history and learning from history
• The difference between one day and today
• The difference between Picard with the flute and O’Brien in prison
• The difference between I-787 and NY-787
• The difference between going a mile a minute and going 60mph
• The difference between bumping into someone on the street and bumping into someone in your car
• The difference between a car that won’t start and a car that won’t stop
• The difference between a sleepy town and a bedroom community
• The difference between a country club and a golf club
• The difference between living off the land and being an astronaut
• The difference between carpeted and rugged
• The difference between sleeping with someone and fucking with someone
• The difference between sex and intimacy
• The difference between a kink and a knot
• The difference between lace and fishnet
• The difference between having cancer and having crabs
• The difference between being speechless and going nonverbal
• The difference between childlike and childish
• The difference between carefree, careless, and uncaring
• The difference between a bible nerd and a jesus freak
• The difference between a baptism and a swirly
• The difference between taking a fish out of water and pushing a land animal under water
• The difference between keeping an eye out and poking an eye out
• The difference between 🙄 and 🥺
• The difference between rolling your eyes, pitching your eyes, and yawing your eyes
• The difference between out of tune and out of focus
• The difference between looking at something a kilometer away and having a thousand yard stare
• The difference between being on something and being on to something
• The difference between a can of coke and a line of coke
• The difference between a speakeasy and a drug den
• The difference between moonlight and moonshine
• The difference between Feeling blue and Seeing red
• The difference between an illusion and a delusion
• The difference between gloom and glory