There is nothing new under the sun...

...or so Ponderable and Salomon tell us.

But surely ~ together ~ we can think of some things that are new?

Why is that "under the sun" part of the expression? Is it that new stuff is only allowed out of its burrow after sunset?

Originally posted by Kewpie
Why is that "under the sun" part of the expression? Is it that new stuff is only allowed out of its burrow after sunset?

This question is new to me.

once, captain kangaroo showed me a thing that nobody had ever seen before and then he put it where nobody would ever see it again...
he shelled a peanut, nobody had ever seen it,
and then he fed it to mister green jeans, and nobody ever saw it again...
this was prolly in the late 50s when i was still crappin in my pants...

What about New Jersey?

Ecclesiastes 1:9 King James Version (KJV)

"The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun."

Thread killed. FMF, can't you find a better source for your thread titles?

Originally posted by Kewpie
Thread killed. FMF, can't you find a better source for your thread titles?

The Bible is pervasive!

Originally posted by FMF
...or so Ponderable and Salomon tell us.

But surely ~ together ~ we can think of some things that [b]are new?[/b]

I think the only thing new under the sun is a day.

Originally posted by divegeester
I thimk the only thing new under the sun is a day.

What about the moon at the time we cannot see it?

Originally posted by FMF
What about the moon at the time we cannot see it?

New by name but not by nature. The only truly "new" thing is the next new 24 hour period. I think.

Originally posted by Kewpie
Why is that "under the sun" part of the expression? Is it that new stuff is only allowed out of its burrow after sunset?

Yes. You came upon a very good new thought.

Of course there is some philosophy around that and we can point to the Kratylos dialogue to get some grip on it (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Cratylus; I hope this is not deemed too much of copy-paste)

Originally posted by divegeester
I think the only thing new under the sun is a day.

A never ending supply 🙂

Originally posted by Kewpie
Why is that "under the sun" part of the expression?

Because the new, exciting stuff always happens under the moonlight 🙂

So the two extreme positions are:

* there are not many new ideas if we look closely and do a bit of abstraction.

and

* each and every Situation is new and original, since it has never happened quite like this time before.

take your pick 🙂