What does this sign mean?

January 30, 2018 1:36 PM

What does this mean - "It's not denial if the lion eats no grains"?

I saw this on the marquee sign for a local lumber company. They change their sign every few weeks, it's usually something jokey/thought provoking, like "Mediocre people are the only ones always at their best", or "I poured my root beer into a square glass, now I just have beer".

But this one has me stumped, and I can't get Google to help.

posted by Gorgik to Writing & Language (12 answers total)

Some kind of play on "denial" = "the Nile" River? Not sure on the grains part...
posted by jillithd at 1:40 PM on January 30, 2018

Best answer: I take it to mean that, since a lion wants to eat meat, when a lion refrains from eating grains, it's not really a sacrifice.
posted by at at 1:42 PM on January 30, 2018 [43 favorites]

I agree with at's gloss above. Maybe it's some kind of paleo pep talk message?
posted by ottereroticist at 1:55 PM on January 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

Yeah, compare it to a cow going vegetarian; doesn't mean much since they never weren't vegetarian.
posted by AzraelBrown at 1:56 PM on January 30, 2018 [3 favorites]

Pretty sure at's got it. Possibly relatedly, Lent is coming up in just a couple of weeks - perhaps it's a reminder that the thing(s) Christians should be giving up for Lent should be meaningful to them.
posted by hanov3r at 1:58 PM on January 30, 2018 [6 favorites]

Best answer: Seconding at's reading. There's an old joke that goes something like,

"What are you giving up for Lent?"
"Rhubarb pie."
"But you hate rhubarb pie and never touch the stuff."
"Well, you gotta start somewhere."

A similar sentiment but from a different angle is expressed in the famous quote from Anatole France: "The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread."
posted by mhum at 1:59 PM on January 30, 2018 [16 favorites]

It would be clearer if denial were changed to a synonym like hardship or loss, since I think a lot of people immediately think of denial being a rebuttal or lying to yourself instead of deprivation of something.
posted by I'm Not Even Supposed To Be Here Today! at 2:38 PM on January 30, 2018 [4 favorites]

Response by poster: at must be correct, and I think I'm Not Even... Is right about why I was stuck. Thanks all!
posted by Gorgik at 3:24 PM on January 30, 2018

I think it's denial in the sense of denying yourself something, or denying your appetites; see the current first definition for Wiktionary's entry on self-denial for example:

⒈ Action that sacrifices one's own benefit for the good of others.

posted by XMLicious at 3:25 PM on January 30, 2018

To be more clear it should read, "it is not SELF-denial.....
posted by mermayd at 4:19 PM on January 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

This seems resolved. But please. What does the root beer one mean?
posted by velveeta underground at 7:34 PM on January 30, 2018 [2 favorites]

In math(s),
let 9 = beer
the square root of 9 (√9) = 3
and 3 squared (3²) = 9,
so (√9²) = 9.

So by taking your root beer, and squaring it (pouring it into a square glass), the root is cancelled and you're left with just your beer.
i.e. root beer squared = (√beer)² = beer.
posted by Gomez_in_the_South at 7:56 PM on January 30, 2018 [7 favorites]