“
Hi, pot. It’s me, kettle,” Sophia snapped back.
“Hi kettle, you have about thirty seconds before this pot kicks your ass.
”
”
Alice Clayton (Wallbanger (Cocktail, #1))
“
Why am I so drawn to you?" He muttered, almost to himself. "Why is it so hard to let go? I thought... at first... it was Ariella, that you remind me of so much. But it's not." Though he didn't smile, his eyes lightened a shade. "You're far more stubborn than she ever was."
I sniffed. "That's like the pot calling the kettle black," I whispered, and a faint, tiny grin finally crossed his face, before his expression clouded and he lowered his head, touching his forehead to mine. "What do you want of me, Meghan?" he asked, a low thread of anguish flickering below the surface.
Tears blurred my vision, all the fear and heartache of the past few days rising to the surface. "Just you," I whispered. "I just want you."
-Ash and Meghan
”
”
Julie Kagawa (The Iron Daughter (The Iron Fey, #2))
“
If the universe is meaningless, so is the statement that it is so. If this world is a vicious trap, so is its accuser, and the pot is calling the kettle black.
”
”
Alan W. Watts (The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety)
“
Careful, pot" Tod said. "Someone might notice your resemblance to the kettle.
”
”
Rachel Vincent (Before I Wake (Soul Screamers, #6))
“
He couldn’t be serious. He was not accusing Marc of wanting me dead! If that wasn’t the pot calling the kettle black, I’d…I’d…pound the shit out of the pot myself!
”
”
Rachel Vincent (Pride (Shifters, #3))
“
Oh, that's the pot calling the kettle black.
Amusement flowed through the connection as Seth said, Or it's the pot calling the pot a pot.
”
”
Jennifer L. Armentrout (Apollyon (Covenant, #4))
“
There was a lot of pot and kettle going on here.
”
”
Abigail Roux (Fish & Chips (Cut & Run, #3))
“
Oh, hey, kettle, I’m pot and wow, you’re black.” - Owen
”
”
Olivia Cunning (Tie Me (One Night with Sole Regret, #5))
“
Well, if that wasn’t the kettle talking smack about the pot, I don’t know what was.
”
”
Meghan Ciana Doidge (Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic (The Dowser, #1))
“
You need more sleep.”
“Skillet, pan.”
“What?”
“You know, the skillet says the pan’s the same deal.”
He thought a moment. “I believe that’s the pot calling the kettle black.”
“Whatever, kitchen stuff can’t talk anyway.
”
”
J.D. Robb (Indulgence in Death (In Death, #31))
“
You're supposed to be a spirit of intellect. I don't understand why you're obsessed with sex."
Bob's voice got defensive. "It's an academic interest, Harry."
"Oh yeah? Well maybe I don't think it's fair to let your academia go peeping in other people's houses."
"Wait a minute. My academia doesn't just peep -"
I held up a hand. "Save it. I don't want to hear it."
He grunted. "You're trivializing what getting out for a bit means to me, Harry. You're insulting my masculinity."
"Bob," I said, "you're a skull . You don't have any masculinity to insult."
"Oh yeah?" Bob challenged me. "Pot kettle black, Harry! Have you gotten a date yet? Huh? Most men have something better to do in the middle of the night than play with their chemistry sets.
”
”
Jim Butcher (Storm Front (The Dresden Files, #1))
“
He's lying, Kay," Nash said, fists clenched at his sides. "Hellions can't lie, but we all know reapers can."
"Careful, pot," Tod said. "Someone might notice your resemblance to the kettle.
”
”
Rachel Vincent
“
Patience is a virtue. (Tee)
Excuse me, pot, could you not pick on the kettle? (Joe)
”
”
Sherrilyn Kenyon (Phantom in the Night (B.A.D. Agency, #2))
“
You’re not…jealous?” He eyed me warily.
I shrugged. “I’ll always be jealous of any girl who’s had that part of you, but I’m not worried about it. If you wanted her, you’d be with her. But you’re not. You’re with me. A sound choice, I might add. “I smirked suggestively.”
Jake threw his head back in laughter. “God, my girl is cocky”
“Pot, meet kettle.”
“Good thing we’re both attracted to cocky, then, huh?”
“Good thing.
”
”
Samantha Young (Into the Deep (Into the Deep, #1))
“
I glanced at him. “Why did you eat the tiger?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. It was a compulsion. I saw him and I had to make him not be.”
“You worry me,” I told him.
He pointed back at the Guild with his thumb. “Pot, kettle.
”
”
Ilona Andrews (Magic Binds (Kate Daniels, #9))
“
Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into the conversation. The kettle is singing even as it pours you a drink, the cooking pots have left their arrogant aloofness and seen the good in you at last. All the birds and creatures of the world are unutterably themselves. Everything is waiting for you.
”
”
David Whyte
“
Dallas,” I whispered. “You really don’t owe me anything. How many times do I have to tell you that?”
“None. Stop wasting your breath.”
Did he stop what he was doing? No. He didn’t.
“You are so fucking stubborn,” I said.
“Pot meet your kettle.
”
”
Mariana Zapata (Wait for It)
“
Hermes leaned across the bar so far, his chest almost touched the counter, and he whispered, “Has anyone ever told you…you need therapy?” Hermes had, in fact, told him often. “Pot, meet kettle,” Hades replied.
”
”
Scarlett St. Clair (A Game of Retribution (Hades Saga, #2))
“
There’s a hell of a lot you haven’t shared.” “Oh, I’m sorry. Be sure to send out invites to the pot-meets-kettle show you’ll be throwing.” “I’m sensing sarcasm. I think being in Cajun country’s given me some of your voodoo.
”
”
S.E. Jakes (Long Time Gone (Hell or High Water, #2))
“
she is called Tinker Bell because she mends the pots and kettles.
”
”
J.M. Barrie (Peter Pan)
K.L. Kreig (Belonging (Regent Vampire Lords, #2))
“
But the kitchen will not come into its own again until it ceases to be a status symbol and becomes again a workshop. It may be pastel. It may be ginghamed as to curtains and shining with copper like a picture in a woman's magazine. But you and I will know it chiefly by its fragrances and its clutter. At the back of the stove will sit a soup kettle, gently bubbling, one into which every day are popped leftover bones and vegetables to make stock for sauces or soup for the family. Carrots and leeks will sprawl on counters, greens in a basket. There will be something sweet-smelling twirling in a bowl and something savory baking in the oven. Cabinet doors will gape ajar and colored surfaces are likely to be littered with salt and pepper and flour and herbs and cheesecloth and pot holders and long-handled forks. It won't be neat. It won't even look efficient. but when you enter it you will feel the pulse of life throbbing from every corner. The heart of the home will have begun once again to beat.
”
”
Phyllis McGinley
“
Contemplating Clodia I find scarcely a drop in my heart of that compassion which Epicurus enjoins us to extend toward the erring.
”
”
Thornton Wilder (The Ides of March)
“
Said the pot to the kettle,
”
”
John Green (Will Grayson, Will Grayson)
“
Y’know, I kind of prefer it when the dead stay dead.’
‘Pot. Kettle. Black,’ Owen said.
‘Yeah,’ agreed Jack with a shrug. ‘The difference is, I do it with style.
”
”
Trevor Baxendale (Something in the Water (Torchwood, #4))
“
Pot, meet kettle,” I mumble.
”
”
Megan Lally (That's Not My Name)
“
Today the teacher called me a sadist. I tried to say that was like the pot calling the kettle black but came out with something closer to “That is like a pan saying to a dark pan, ‘You are a pan.
”
”
David Sedaris (Theft by Finding: Diaries (1977-2002))
“
The tea kettle whistled, and Melissa poured it over the tea at the bottom of the glass pot. While it steeped, Melissa opened the back door to her favorite sight in her corner of the world—her herb and butterfly garden. Blue and purple lupine, shocking pink four o’clocks, orange poppies, and sunny-yellow damiana greeted her, still shaded by the fig tree on the east side of the garden.
”
”
Leslie Leigh (Murder & Moonflowers (The Herbalist #1))
“
Maybe they had existed, all of them: Gabriel and God, Samyaza and his crew and all their enormous biting babies. Who knows? The Elioud dismissed the Book of Enoch as absurd, which was kind of the pot calling the kettle black, Eliza had always thought, but wasn't that what religions did? Squint at one another and declare "My unprovable belief is better than your unprovable belief. Suck it.
”
”
Laini Taylor
“
Sister Pot.” Apple took her hands then released them and turned to make introductions. “Pot, meet Kettle
”
”
Mark Lawrence (Bound (Book of the Ancestor, #2.5))
“
Isn’t that the kettle calling the pot collect?” English
”
”
Patrick Thomas (Murphy's Lore: Bartender of the Gods)
“
I have been keeping something from you?” she challenged. “I rather think that to be the pot calling the kettle black.
”
”
Summer Hanford (Mr. Darcy's Bookshop (Pride & Prejudice Variations))
“
How long shall the fair daughters of Africa be compelled to bury their minds and talents beneath a load of iron pots and kettles?”2
”
”
Jill Lepore (These Truths: A History of the United States)
“
Says the pot to the kettle,” Lizzie countered. “So, what’s it going to be, Joey Lynch? Are we dying tonight, or are we living?
”
”
Chloe Walsh (Redeeming 6 (Boys of Tommen, #4))
“
I pointed at her, then at myself. “Pot. Kettle.”
She stuck her tongue out before disappearing down the hall, leaving the door cracked behind her. Maybe she hadn’t grown up too much yet.
”
”
M.L. Rio (If We Were Villains)
“
What was that about?” “She’s a famous boyfriend stealer.” “Okay, one”—I held up a finger—“I’m not your boyfriend. I’m half of your binary pairing.” She pushed me so hard I had to take a step back or fall over. “You’re the one to my zero?” “I’m your mate. A boyfriend can be stolen. A mate can’t.” I held up a second finger. “Two, she’s not my type.” She crossed her arms and leaned on one hip. “Is there a three?” “Three.” I made a W. “Knew it.” “You need new friends if you can’t trust the ones you have.” “Did you text the kettle to tell him he was black, Mr. Pot?
”
”
C.D. Reiss (King of Code)
“
a pound or two of short dips; a crown, set with diamonds and rubies each as big as a duck’s egg; a cradle — empty, an affecting sight; carpets, kettles, and pots; a stretcher; a chariot; a bunch of carrots; a costermonger’s barrow; banners; a leg of mutton, and a baby. Everything, in short, that could possibly be wanted, either in a palace or a garret, a farmyard or a battle-field.
”
”
Jerome K. Jerome (Complete Works of Jerome K. Jerome)
“
And you accuse me of having a large ego? There is a phrase about a pot and a kettle that I feel would be quite appropriate here, if only there were a kettle worthy of being compared to the likes of me.
”
”
K.M. Shea (Puss in Boots (Timeless Fairy Tales, #6))
“
Nicholas shrugged. “Who knows what he’s got locked away in his head. Considering the countless lies he’s told, you can never really know.” “That’s like the pot calling the kettle black, isn’t it?” He smirked. “Perhaps.
”
”
Jessica Sorensen (The Promise (Fallen Star, #4))
“
Now what sea is this you have crossed, exactly, and what sea is it you have plunged more than once to the bottom of, alerted, full of adrenalin, but caught really, buffaloed under the epistemologies of these threats that paranoid you so down and out, caught in this steel pot, softening to devitaminized mush inside the soup-stock of your own words, your waste submarine breath? It took the Dreyfus Affair to get the Zionists out and doing, finally: what will drive you out of your soup-kettle? Has it already happened? Was it tonight’s attack and deliverance? Will you go to the Heath, and begin your settlement, and wait there for your Director to come?
”
”
Thomas Pynchon (Gravity's Rainbow)
“
Sebastian looked down at Bethy with a look of adoration on his face. "Just for that you get extra dessert."
Bethy clapped her hands together excitedly. "I can't wait!"
Magnus chuckled. "As if you would not give her as many seconds as she wanted anyway. You have always spoiled her rotten."
Caspian, Broderick, Sebastian, and Adriel turned as one to stare at Magnus. Adriel spoke first. "Sire, I believe the saying is, pot meet kettle.
”
”
Alanea Alder (My Guardian (Bewitched and Bewildered, #6))
“
Right. Yeah, she did.” I keep my response vague, because Tucker is right there and he’s not allowed to know about Allie and me. And…shit. I guess that means I’m not allowed to harass him for being so secretive lately, what with this pot/kettle situation we’re in.
”
”
Elle Kennedy (The Score (Off-Campus, #3))
“
was left wondering what I was supposed to do with the wall I’d built around my heart, because there was no way Deck could scale that sucker, and it probably wasn’t fair to ignore him because of what all his club brothers had done to me. That would be the pot calling the kettle black for sure.
”
”
Christine Michelle (The Other Princess (Aces High MC - Charleston, #1))
“
Glass spotted another dog by the creek, and this one he did not spare. Soon he had a fire burning in the center of the hut. Part of the dog he roasted on a spit over the fire and part he boiled in the kettle. He threw corn into the pot with the dog meat and continued his search through the village.
”
”
Michael Punke (The Revenant (Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus))
“
They said you’re an Elemental. You don’t look like an Elemental, more like a cheap maid from Slemnask.' She spat the words out, the inference obvious. My rational voice had a field day while I observed her costume; a belt for a skirt and a belt for a top. 'Pot, meet kettle,' I replied in a pleasant tone.
”
”
Nicole MacDonald (The Arrival (BirthRight Trilogy #1))
“
And more to the point, I have no idea what I want to do.
It shouldn't be a surprise. I've had years to think about it. That and just the other day I was pestering Wolf about what he wanted to do--talk about the pot calling the kettle black.
But that's just it, I guess. I've never had to think about it. I have very diligently kept all of my options open. The AP classes, the killer GPA, the SAT scores in the 99th percentile, the varsity letters from swim team, the debate club, the fundraising... I've taken on everything and succeeded at it. There is not one weak spot that can be pointed to in my resume, not a single thing that would make an administrator say, "Yes, but what about her..."
Except maybe this. Except the part where it's suddenly clear to me why I've been struggling so much with my college essays, with articulating who I am in so few words. How can a person even know who they are if they don't know what they want?
”
”
Emma Lord (Tweet Cute)
“
Man measures his strength by his destructiveness. What is his religion? An excuse for hating ME. What is his law? An excuse for hanging YOU. What is his morality? Gentility! an excuse for consuming without producing. What is his art? An excuse for gloating over pictures of slaughter. What are his politics? Either the worship of a despot because a despot can kill, or parliamentary cockfighting. I spent an evening lately in a certain celebrated legislature, and heard the pot lecturing the kettle for its blackness, and ministers answering questions. When I left I chalked up on the door the old nursery saying—"Ask no questions and you will be told no lies.
”
”
George Bernard Shaw (Man and Superman)
“
At one-thirty in the deep dark morning, the cooking odors blew up through the windy corridors of the house. Down the stairs, one by one, came women in curlers, men in bathrobes, to tiptoe and peer into the kitchen- lit only by fitful gusts of red fire from the hissing stove. And there in the black kitchen at two of a warm summer morning, Grandma floated like an apparition, amidst bangings and clatterings, half blind once more, her fingers groping instinctively in the dimness, shaking out spice clouds over bubbling pots and simmering kettles, her face in the firelight red, magical, and enchanted as she seized and stirred and poured the sublime foods.
Quiet, quiet, the boarders laid the best linens and gleaming silver and lit candles rather than switch on electric lights and snap the spell.
Grandfather, arriving home from a late evening's work at the printing office, was startled to hear grace being said in the candlelit dining room.
As for the food? The meats were deviled, the sauces curried, the greens mounded with sweet butter, the biscuits splashed with jeweled honey; everything toothsome, luscious, and so miraculously refreshing that a gentle lowing broke out as from a pasturage of beasts gone wild in clover. One and all cried out their gratitude for their loose-fitting night clothes.
”
”
Ray Bradbury (Dandelion Wine)
“
A steampunk nation
Baby pollution rises up then the loving comes arraigning 'cause
Our art's official and only partially artificial
And our heart's in the middle of sharp hardened shards of metal but
There's not where it settles
Because it's beating to the steaming of God's hottest pot or kettle
And now we face it, this creation we made to
To save our craving for a synthetic rebelnation it's
Our safeway they make into a pathetic revelation
In our steampunk nation
Our steampunk nation
”
”
Criss Jami (Diotima, Battery, Electric Personality)
“
I know he accused Nick of making me dependent on him for everything, which is the pot calling up the kettle to have a long talk about being black. My mom loved Nick, but right or wrong, my parents had spent my life making me think that I couldn’t do anything without them. At twenty-one years old, I was still very much a child. I didn’t know how to write a check, but, somehow, I was paying for everything. I knew that I was making money, but I didn’t think of myself as the family breadwinner. I just thought my money was their money. Honestly, what I knew for sure was that it stopped my family from having as many fights, so I felt lucky that I could be the one to help keep the peace.
”
”
Jessica Simpson (Open Book)
“
I think you’re being melodramatic.”
“Aren’t you like the pot calling the kettle black or something?” I asked.
“Pardon me, oh great one. I forgot my place as a mere footnote in the history of Sitia.”
Talk about being melodramatic.
“Is he—”
I cut Devlen off. “Annoying? Yes, all the time.”
He studied Leif. “You are more...subdued at our house.”
“That’s ’cause I’m too busy keeping your daughter out of trouble.”
“I take it Reema has Leif wrapped around her little finger?” I asked Devlen.
“Hey,” Leif said.
“Yes. He needs a child of his own to learn how to not give in to her every demand.”
I agreed. “That would certainly mature him. Unless it backfires and Leif regresses. Then poor Mara would have two children to deal with.”
“I’m standing right here, ya know.
”
”
Maria V. Snyder (Shadow Study (Soulfinders, #1; Study, #4))
“
She'd gone and let her hair loose, he thought. Why did she have to do that? It made his hands hurt, actually hurt with wanting to slide into it.
"That's good." She stepped in, shut the door. And because it seemed too perfect not to, audibly flipped the lock. Seeing a muscle twitch in his jaw was incredibly satisfying.
He was a drowning man, and had just gone under the first time. "Keeley, I've had a long day here.I was just about to-"
"Have a nightcap," she finished. She'd spotted the teapot and the bottle of whiskey on the kitchen counter. "I wouldn't mind one myself." She breezed past him to flip off the burner under the now sputtering kettle.
She'd put on different perfume, he thought viciously. Put it on fresh, too, just to torment him. He was damn sure of it.It snagged his libido like a fish-hook.
"I'm not really fixed for company just now."
"I don't think I qualify as company." Competently she warmed the pot, measured out the tea and poured the boiling water in. "I certainly won't be after we're lovers."
He went under the second time without even the chance to gulp in air. "We're not lovers."
"That's about to change." She set the lid on the pot, turned. "How long do you like it to steep?"
"I like it strong, so it'll take some time. You should go on home now."
"I like it strong, too." Amazing, she thought,she didn't feel nervous at all. "And if it's going to take some time, we can have it afterward."
"This isn't the way for this." He said it more to himself than her. "This is backward, or twisted.I can't get my mind around it. no,just stay back over there and let me think a minute."
But she was already moving toward him, a siren's smile on her lips. "If you'd rather seduce me, go ahead."
"That's exactly what I'm not going to do." Thought the night was cool and his windows were open to it, he felt sweat slither down his back. "If I'd known the way things were, I'd never have started this."
That mouth of his, she thought. She really had to have that mouth. "Now we both know the way things are, and I intend to finish it.It's my choice."
His blood was already swimming. Hot and fast. "You don't know anything, which is the whole flaming problem."
"Are you afraid of innocence?"
"Damn right."
"It doesn't stop you from wanting me. Put your hands on me,Brian." She took his wrist,pressed his hand to her breast. "I want your hands on me."
The boots clattered to the floor as he went under for the third time.
”
”
Nora Roberts (Irish Rebel (Irish Hearts, #3))
“
What did you say?” he asked. “To who?” “Whom,” he said, and then he almost kicked himself. “To Miss MacIntyre, for example.” She studied his face for a second and then, with a hand on her hip, she said, “I said, ‘You’re damn skippy he’ll do a wedding—he needs the work!’ What do you think I said? I took her number and told her I’d have you call her back. The same to all of them. Except the nurse—I told her she was scraping the bottom of the barrel, going after your hot pants.” Then she smirked. “You’re a pain in the butt,” he said. “Yeah, so says the pot to the kettle. You thought I wasn’t smart enough to know how to answer an office phone. I’ve worked in offices!” “I know this,” he informed her. “Ah, you thought I got those jobs because I have—” He put up a hand to stop her. “I never thought a thing,” he said. “Boobs,” she finished insolently. Then she winked while she chewed vigorously on some gum. She cracked it for good measure.
”
”
Robyn Carr (Forbidden Falls)
“
may sound strange to American readers that by “eating their own lambs” the Heddles were breaking the law. The fact is that during the war, and for several years after, the people of Britain were strictly rationed. Each person was provided with a book containing coupons for food and clothing. Rationed food included meat, eggs, bacon, cheese, sugar, tea, butter, and fats, etc., etc. The coupons were given up every week for the food. In this way everyone was able to obtain a fair share of the very limited supply of necessary food. Greedy people who had no conscience and plenty of money were able to obtain extra food “under the counter” but the law was strictly enforced. Even farmers were not allowed to kill and eat their own animals, so by killing and eating their lambs the Heddles were liable to severe penalties. The rations allowed by law were very frugal and everybody lost weight but it did us no harm and we were doing it as part of the war effort so nobody grumbled. Many factories in Britain were requisitioned to make precision instruments and other articles which were needed for the war so it soon became impossible to buy clocks and kettles and pots and pans and hairpins. D.
”
”
D.E. Stevenson (Shoulder the Sky (Dering Family #3))
“
From Tomorrow to Yesterday
The tree trunks move in time with the rhythm of her rubber soles on the wet path, where the air is still cool after the night rain. The woodland floor is white with anemones; in one place, growing close to the roots of an ancient tree, they make her think of an old, wrinkled hand. She could go on and on without getting tired, without meeting anyone or thinking of anything in particular, and without coming to the edge of the woods. As if the town did not begin just behind the trees, the leafy suburb with its peaceful roads and its houses hidden behind close-trimmed hedges. She doesn't want to think about anything, and almost succeeds; her body is no more than a porous, pulsating machine. The sun breaks through the clouds as she runs back, its light diffused on the gravel drive and the magnolia in front of the kitchen window. His car is no longer parked beside hers, he must have left while she was in the woods.
He hadn't stirred when she rose, and she'd already been in bed when he came home late last night. She lay with her back turned, eyes closed, as he undressed, taking care not to wake her. She leans against one of the pillars of the garage and stretches, before emptying the mailbox and letting herself into the house. She puts the mail on the kitchen table. The little light on the coffeemaker is on; she switches it off. Not so long ago, she would have felt a stab of irritation or a touch of tenderness, depending on her mood. He always forgets to turn off that machine. She puts the kettle on, sprinkles tea leaves into the pot, and goes over to the kitchen window. She observes the magnolia blossoms, already starting to open. They'll have to talk about it, of course, but neither of them seems able to find the right words, the right moment.
She pauses on her way through the sitting room. She stands amid her furniture looking out over the lawn and the pond at the end of the garden. The canopies of the trees are dimly reflected in the shining water. She goes into the bathroom. The shower door is still spotted with little drops. As time went on they have come to make contact during the day only briefly, like passing strangers. But that's the way it has been since the children left home, nothing unusual in that. She takes off her clothes and stands in front of the mirror where a little while ago he stood shaving. She greets her reflection with a wry smile. She has never been able to view herself in a mirror without this moue, as if demonstrating a certain guardedness about what she sees. The dark green eyes and wavy black hair, the angularity of her features. She dyes her hair exactly the color it would have been if she hadn't begun to go gray in her thirties, but that's her only protest against age.
”
”
Jens Christian Grøndahl (An Altered Light)
“
Sometimes I wish you were less bloody-minded,” Alexander says. He had managed to receive a three-day furlough. They’re in Leningrad—the last time they’re in Leningrad together, their last everything. “Isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black?” He grunts. “Yes. I wish the kettle were less black.” He snorts in frustration. “There are women,” he says, “I know there are, who listen to their men. I’ve seen them. Other men have them—” She tickles him. He does not seem amused. “All right. Tell me what to do,” she says, lowering her voice two notches. “I will do exactly as you say.” “Leave Leningrad and go back to Lazarevo instantly,” Alexander tells her. “Go where you will be safe.” Rolling her eyes, she says, “Come on. I know you can play this game.” “I know I can,” Alexander says, sitting on her parents’ old sofa. “I just don’t want to. You don’t listen to me about the important things…” “Those aren’t the important things,” Tatiana says, kneeling in front of him and taking hold of his hands. “If the NKVD come for me, I will know you are gone and I will be happy to stand against the wall.” She squeezes his hands. “I will go to the wall as your wife and never regret a second I spent with you. So let me have this here with you. Let me smell you once more, taste you once more, kiss you once more,” she says. “Now play my game with me, sorrowful as it is to lie down together in wintry Leningrad. Play the miracle with me—to lie down with you at all. Tell me what to do and I will do it.” Alexander pulls on her hand. “Come here.” He opens his arms. “Sit on top of me.” She obeys. “Now take your hands and place them on my face.” She obeys. “Put your lips on my eyes.” She obeys. “Kiss my forehead.” She obeys. “Kiss my lips.” She obeys. And obeys. “Tania…” “Shh.” “Can’t you see I’m breaking?” “Ah,” she says. “You’re still in one piece then.
”
”
Paullina Simons (Tatiana and Alexander (The Bronze Horseman, #2))
“
Sean Penn mourned the death of the fifty-eight-year-old socialist creep. Sean wrote in a statement sent to the Hollywood Reporter: “Today the people of the United States lost a friend it never knew it had. And poor people around the world lost a champion.” He added: “I lost a friend I was blessed to have.” Penn needs to tell you that he knew the guy. A world leader. That’s cool. I guess playing Jeff Spicoli and marrying Madonna wasn’t enough (one made your career, the other ruined your urinary tract). Yeah, this is the same chap who told Piers Morgan that Ted Cruz should be institutionalized. Talk about the pot calling the kettle batshit crazy. If Penn got any nuttier, he’d be a Snickers bar. Of course it would be uncool to point out to Penn that Chávez was no champion of the poor. Under his rule people became far poorer in Venezuela. And in the midst of an oil boom, Chávez engineered a murder boom. The murder rate in his country tripled during Chávez’s tyrannical tenure, hitting a high of 67 per 100,000 residents in 2011, compared with a murder rate of less than 5 per 100,000 in the United States (and that includes Baltimore). And about 10 or 20 less than the last Penn movie. Penn was joined, per usual, by director Oliver Stone, who said, solemnly, somewhere: “I mourn a great hero to the majority of his people and those who struggle throughout the world for a place.” He added: “Hated by the entrenched classes, Hugo Chávez will live forever in history. “My friend, rest finally in a peace long earned.” This is from an adult, mind you. And no list of apologists for evil is complete without Michael Moore. This nugget comes from the Michigan Live website, which reports Moore praising Chávez in a feeble collection of Twitter messages, on the night the Venezuelan viper expired. Hugo Chávez declared the oil belonged 2 the ppl. He used the oil $ 2 eliminate 75% of extreme poverty, provide free health & education 4 all. That made him dangerous. US
”
”
Greg Gutfeld (Not Cool: The Hipster Elite and Their War on You)
“
BITCH THE POT Tea and gossip go together. At least, that’s the stereotypical view of a tea gathering: a group of women gathered around the teapot exchanging tittle-tattle. As popularity of the beverage imported from China (‘tea’ comes from the Mandarin Chinese cha) increased, it became particularly associated with women, and above all with their tendency to gossip. Francis Grose’s Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue lists various slang terms for tea, including ‘prattle-broth’, ‘cat-lap’ (‘cat’ being a contemporary slang for a gossipy old woman), and ‘scandal broth’. To pour tea, meanwhile, was not just to ‘play mother’, as one enduring English expression has it, but also to ‘bitch the pot’ – to drink tea was to simply ‘bitch’. At this time a bitch was a lewd or sensual woman as well as a potentially malicious one, and in another nineteenth-century dictionary the phraseology is even more unguarded, linking tea with loose morals as much as loquaciousness: ‘How the blowens [whores] lush the slop. How the wenches drink tea!’ The language of tea had become another vehicle for sexism, and a misogynistic world view in which the air women exchanged was as hot as the beverage they sipped. ‘Bitch party’ and ‘tabby party’ (again the image of cattiness) were the terms of choice for such gossipy gatherings. Men, it seems, were made of stronger stuff, and drank it too. Furthermore, any self-respecting man would ensure his wife and daughters stayed away from tea. The pamphleteer and political writer William Cobbett declared in 1822: The gossip of the tea-table is no bad preparatory school for the brothel. The girl that has been brought up, merely to boil the tea kettle, and to assist in the gossip inseparable from the practice, is a mere consumer of food, a pest to her employer, and a curse to her husband, if any man be so unfortunate as to affix his affections upon her. In the twenty-first century, to ‘spill the T’ has become a firm part of drag culture slang for gossiping. T here may stand for either ‘truth’ or the drink, but either way ‘weak tea’ has come to mean a story that doesn’t quite hold up – and it’s often one told by women. Perhaps it’s time for bitches to make a fresh pot.
”
”
Susie Dent (Word Perfect: Etymological Entertainment For Every Day of the Year)
“
She opened her eyes and then frowned. “Why are you dressed?”
“Because I got up and got dressed so I could find some coffee, but I changed my mind and I’m coming back to bed.”
“Fully dressed?”
“Yes. No shoes, though.”
It was too early to follow along with his crazy bouncing ball of logic. “Did Gram put a pot of coffee on yet?”
He groaned and threw his arm over his eyes. “Not exactly.”
“What is wrong with you this morning?”
“I just ran into your grandmother. She was sneaking into the house…in the same dress she wore last night.”
“What?” Emma sat up, aches and pains forgotten. “You caught Gram doing the walk of shame?”
“Yes, and it was awkward and now I’m going back to bed.”
She pushed his arm off his face. “What did she say?”
“She said good-morning and told me she was going to take a quick shower and then start breakfast.”
“And what did you say?”
“I muttered something about taking her time and then ran like a girl.”
Emma flopped back onto her pillow and stare at the ceiling. “Wow.”
“I probably should have broken it to you better, but I’m not sure how I could have.”
She didn’t know what to say. Go, Gram, a part of her was thinking, but another part wanted to hide under the covers with Sean and not deal with the fact her grandmother was currently taking a shower after doing the walk of shame. That was obviously the side of himself Sean was currently listening to.
“We have to go down eventually,” she said. “I need coffee. And food.”
“I’ll wait here. Bring some back.”
She laughed and slapped his thigh. “If I can face her, so can you. She’s not your grandmother.”
“It was awkward.”
“I’m sure it’s awkward for her, knowing we’re having sex, but she’s an adult about it.”
That just made him cover his face with his arm again. “That’s different.”
“Why? Because she’s sixty-five?”
“No. Because, as you just said, she’s a grandmother. Your grandmother.”
“Come on. We’ll go down together.” She slid out of bed and walked toward the bathroom. “Stop making it such a big deal.”
Gram was still in the shower when they went past the bathroom on their way down the hall. They could tell because she was whistling a very cheery tune that made Sean wince.
Emma grabbed his arm and tugged him toward the stairs. “Coffee.”
They got a pot going and sat at the table in silence until enough had brewed to sneak two cups from it. Emma put the kettle on and dropped a tea bag into Gram’s mug.
The woman of the hour appeared just as it whistled, looking refreshed and cheerful. “Good morning.”
“Good morning,” they both mumbled.
”
”
Shannon Stacey (Yours to Keep (Kowalski Family, #3))
“
A huge fireplace and Dutch oven of fieldstone filled one wall. Over them hung a long muzzle-loading rifle, powder horn, and bullet pouch. On the mantel were candle molds, a coffee mill, an iron and trivet, and a rusty kettle. An iron cauldron, big enough to boil a missionary in, swung at the end of a long arm in the fireplace, and below it, like so many black offspring, were a cluster of small pots. A wooden butter churn held the door open, and clusters of Indian corn hung from the molding at aesthetic intervals. A colonial scythe stood in one corner, and two Boston rockers on a hooked rug faced the cold fireplace, where the unwatched pot never boiled. Paul
”
”
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (Player Piano)
“
In the heat of the 2000 election, then Governor George W. Bush of Texas made an off-the-cuff statement that we ought to take the log out of our own eye before calling attention to the speck in the eye of our neighbor. The New York Times reported the remark as a minor gaffe -- what it termed "an interesting variation on the saying about the pot and the kettle."The reporter -- actually a fine and balanced journalist -- did not recognize the biblical reference. Neither did his editors. And this, of course, was not an obscure biblical reference. Not only is it found in the red letters of the New Testament, it is taken from the Sermon on the Mount.
”
”
Paul Marshall (Blind Spot: When Journalists Don't Get Religion)
“
You pronounced ‘stubborn’ wrong,” she said softly. He expelled a sound. “Pot meet kettle.
”
”
Tessa Bailey (This Time Tomorrow (Phenomenal Fate, #2))
“
Your job now is to translate that knowledge into action, while keeping in mind that the goal is not to boil the ocean. It’s to boil the water in your pot or kettle—the bigger the better—and put it in the ocean. With a sufficient number of pot boilers, a pond will boil, as will a lake, and potentially an ocean.
”
”
Robert Livingston (The Conversation: How Seeking and Speaking the Truth About Racism Can Radically Transform Individuals and Organizations)
“
I’m miserable! You called me out for being a coward. Pot, kettle, Cecelia. Stop backing away from this.” “You’re unforgivably selfish! Is that what you want to hear? And maybe I don’t want to forgive you for the years I spent crying for you, dreaming about you, or for the hell I endured eight months ago, begging you to see what was so fucking clear to the both of us. You sent me away to ease your own guilt, pain, and fears, never taking into consideration how much I suffered alone—or if you did—it wasn’t enough to keep you from hurting me again. If you’re unforgivable, it’s for that. And what you’re doing right now is equally as selfish.
”
”
Kate Stewart (The Finish Line (The Ravenhood, #3))
“
You tend to give people second chances. And third. And fourth.” “Pot, kettle. Can you work with him?” He shrugged. “We need him and his wife. I can always kill him later.” His Furriness, the Long-term Planner.
”
”
Ilona Andrews (Magic Triumphs (Kate Daniels, #10))
“
Put it this way, the dictionary I'm looking at defines 'pot calling the kettle back' as 'Flavio Briatore labels Jenson Button a playboy'.
”
”
Jenson Button (Life to the Limit: My Autobiography)
“
Rattling Kettle Haikus (Yiddish/English)
.האַקן אַ טשײַניק
.ניט האַקן מיר קיין טשײַניק
.אַ ברירה פון די טשײַניק
Hakn a tshaynik.
Hak mir nisht keyn tshaynik.
It's the kettle's choice.
.וי, שוואַרץ שמאַרטז
.די פאַן פאַך די טשײַניק שוואַרץ
.קוק אין דער שפּיגל
Oy, Black Schmack.
Pot's calling the kettle black.
Look in the mirror.
”
”
Beryl Dov
“
Let us help."
"You already did." My voice didn't betray anything. "Both of you helped plan this. You lent me this
car. Aubrey put up the funds."
He raised his brow. "Lending you this car doesn't count as helping. It was more like public service.
If you drove your car, the noise would wake up all of Haverleau."
"It's not that bad —"
"Yeah, if you want to be as obvious as a rhinoceros."
I gave a pointed look at his lime-green coat and bright maroon sweater.
Talk about burning my retinas. "Pot calling kettle."
He glanced at himself. "It's seasonal. I look Christmasy.
”
”
Emma Raveling (Billow (Ondine Quartet, #2))
“
Just because it's the pot calling the kettle black, doesn't make the claim any less legitimate.
”
”
SonnyGoten
“
for one morning Susi came running at the top of his speed and gasped out, "An Englishman! I see him!" and off he darted to meet him. The American flag at the head of a caravan told of the nationality of the stranger. Bales of goods, baths of tin, huge kettles, cooking pots, tents, &c, made me think "This must be a luxurious traveller, and not one at his wits' end like me." (28th October, 1871.) It was Henry Moreland Stanley, the travelling correspondent of the New York Herald, sent by James Gordon Bennett, junior, at an expense of more than 4000l., to obtain accurate information about Dr. Livingstone if living, and if dead to bring home my bones. The news he had to tell to one who had been two full years without any tidings from Europe made my whole frame thrill. The
”
”
David Livingstone (The Last Journals of David Livingstone, in Central Africa, from 1865 to His Death: 1869-1873)
“
They had to park the Jeep, load the engine parts into the dinghy, and row across the bar, so by the time they reached the Misty Day Spence was already there, leaning against the cradle, puffing on a cigarette.
Mr. Jones frowned when he saw him. “How old are you?” he asked.
“Sixteen,” said Spence. “Why?”
“Do you know what your lungs are going to look like by the time you’re fifty?”
Spence shrugged, then nodded toward the ever-present pipe that hung from Mr. Jones’s lip. “No worse than yours, I guess,” he said.
Mr. Jones looked puzzled.
“He means your pipe,” Denny prompted.
“Yeah,” said Spence, “and don’t give me any of that crap about a pipe being not as bad as a cigarette. They’re all the same.”
Mr. Jones took his pipe out of his mouth and looked at it thoughtfully.
“You know,” he said, “you’ve got a point there. Kind of like the pot calling the kettle black, isn’t it?”
Spence nodded.
“Tell you what I’m going to do,” said Mr. Jones. “I’ll make you a little wager. I’ll bet I can give up smoking my pipe if you can give up your cigarettes.”
Denny bit her lip to keep from smiling.
Spence took another drag on his cigarette and stared at Mr. Jones skeptically.
“Of course, if you don’t think you’ve got the willpower,” said Mr. Jones.
Spence dropped his cigarette and crushed it into the ground. “I can quit anytime I want,” he said, then looked up. “But I don’t want to.”
“Oh, sure,” said Denny. “That’s what they all say.”
Spence looked at her and narrowed her eyes. “Who asked you?” he said.
“You just don’t think you can do it,” Denny went on. “You’re afraid Mr. Jones is gonna show you up.”
“Oh, yeah?” said Spence. He pulled his cigarettes out of his jacket pocket, smiled wryly at Denny, and tossed them basketball style into Mr. Jones’s trash barrel, then reached a hand out to Mr. Jones. “You got a deal, old man,” he said.
Mr. Jones shook his hand and nodded, then stuck the pipe back in his mouth. “You don’t mind if I just kind of let it hang here, do you, for old times’ sake?”
Spence shrugged. “Suit yourself,” he said, “as long as you don’t light up.”
“I’m a man of my word,” said Mr. Jones. “No flame will ever touch this pipe again.”
Spence nodded and stalked off toward the shed.
Denny giggled. “You’re awful,” she said.
Mr. Jones winked. “What’s awful?” he said. “I’m doing him a favor.
”
”
Jackie French Koller (The Last Voyage of the Misty Day)
“
Whatever colour the pots, the kettle may indeed be black.
”
”
H.V.D. Dyson
“
We would pass the afternoon at Ya Ya’s table, eating stringy boiled meat served with spinach pie. The food tasted as though it had been cooked weeks beforehand and left to age in a musty trunk. Her meals had been marinated in something dank and foreign and were cooked not in pots and pans, but in the same blackened kettles used by witches. Once we’d been served, she performed an epic version of grace. Delivered in both Greek and broken English, it involved tears and excessive hand-wringing and came off sounding less like a prayer than a spell. “Enough
”
”
David Sedaris (Naked)
“
Barack Obama has spent two decades of his public life advocating for radical anti–Second Amendment zealots’ most extreme anti-gun policies. In his five years in the Oval Office, he has surrounded himself with anti-gun radicals and empowered them to defy federal law and risk innocent lives in pursuit of their agenda of destroying the Second Amendment. He has wealthy, Second Amendment–hating allies right along with him. Through their unified campaign for power and their efforts to impose a vision of a nearly gun-free American on an unwilling nation, they have insulted gun owners, lied to them, impugned their motives, and accused them of spreading misinformation—a case of the pot calling the kettle black, if ever there was one.
”
”
Dana Loesch (Hands Off My Gun: Defeating the Plot to Disarm America)
“
I just don’t think you should go around saying, ‘Then it will be over.’ It’s not the end. It’s just the start of a new chapter. Just new shit that you have to figure out how to cope with.”
“Fuck, you are grim.”
“Pot, kettle.”
Harper sighs. “We’ll be lucky if Nova sticks around long enough to wave good-bye.”
Mason laughs despite himself. “Fair.
”
”
Addison Lane (Blackpines: The Antlers Witch: The Ones Who Couldn't Let Go)
“
Grandfather has what Mother says is his only great vice: he cannot pass a bookstore. She says it's like someone who can't pass a bar without going in for a drink. Grandfather cannot pass a bookstore without buying a book. He's not a bibliophile, he's a bibliomaniac. (Look those up in your dictionary!) Of course, Mother shouldn't talk. It's like the pot calling the kettle black, or people in glass houses throwing stones. (pg. 167)
”
”
Madeleine L'Engle (Meet the Austins (Austin Family Chronicles, #1))
“
Yes, Pot.” “Night, Kettle.
”
”
Camilla Isley (Not in a Billion Years (True Love, #1))
“
I’m never letting you out of my sight again.”
“Would you like to be the pot or the kettle today? If I recall, the last time you disappeared with a man, he knocked you up.”
Jaxon chuckled. “Yeah, that was a good day.”
Natalie shot daggers from her eyes at her husband. “You are on thin ice.”
“Baby, I’m always skating on thin ice.
”
”
Siena Trap (Playing Pretend with the Prince (The Remington Royals, #2))
“
Lee, his pigtailed Chinese cook, had made a special trip to Pajaro to buy the pots and kettles and pans, kegs, jars, copper, and glass for his kitchen.
”
”
John Steinbeck (East of Eden)
“
Making tea is a lesson in life,' she said. 'You think that you;ve made the tea just because you've put the kettle on the pot and dumped tea leaves into it. But take a deeper look at what's going on. Actually, someone has grown the tea leaves, someone else has pruned them, some poor fellow put them into packages. Someone has milked a cow and another has pressed sugar cane to give you sugar. And it is thanks to the fire that you can boil your water. So what you have done is a small speck in the scheme of tea-making. Never feel undue pride, for there is much more unseen energy contributing to your so called achievement.
”
”
Namita Devidayal
“
An incredulous sound comes from my throat, and I laugh, holding my fingers up in a Y-shape and bringing them to my ear. “Pot? Kettle calling.
”
”
Sav R. Miller (Souls and Sorrows (Monsters & Muses, #5))
“
The outside of the hotel – which was grandly named the Intercontinental, London – had looked alright with its jaunty blue and white awning, potted plants and fairy-lit windows. Neve has always been a sucker for fairy lights. But the room, with its shabby MDF table and undersized kettle, feels like the kind of place travelling salesmen go to commit suicide.
”
”
Cass Green (In a Cottage in a Wood)
“
The pot callin’ the kettle black,” Roman shot my way. “Ain’t nothin’ shady. Nita doesn’t share any DNA with us. Our mother died. My father remarried. His hoe ass wife cheated and here came Nita. He made us swear we’d never tell her. Our daddy raised her like she was his own.
”
”
M. Monique (Heart of a Champion; Soul of a Boss)
“
The alternative blues-kicker is to shift gears. Ask for Grace. Call a good friend and talk. Put the kettle on for a fresh pot of tea.
”
”
Sarah Ban Breathnach (Simple Abundance: 365 Days to a Balanced and Joyful Life)
“
But when my spirits were at their lowest ebb, the good Samaritan was close at hand, for one morning Susi came running at the top of his speed and gasped out, "An Englishman! I see him!" and off he darted to meet him. The American flag at the head of a caravan told of the nationality of the stranger. Bales of goods, baths of tin, huge kettles, cooking pots, tents, &c, made me think "This must be a luxurious traveller, and not one at his wits' end like me." (28th October, 1871.) It was Henry Moreland Stanley, the travelling correspondent of the New York Herald, sent by James Gordon Bennett, junior, at an expense of more than 4000l., to obtain accurate information about Dr. Livingstone if living, and if dead to bring home my bones. The news he had to tell to one who had been two full years without any tidings from Europe made my whole frame thrill. The terrible fate that had befallen France, the telegraphic cables successfully laid in the Atlantic, the election of General Grant, the death of good Lord Clarendon—my constant friend, the proof that Her Majesty's Government had not forgotten me in voting 1000l. for supplies, and many other points of interest, revived emotions that had lain dormant in Manyuema.
”
”
David Livingstone (The Last Journals of David Livingstone, in Central Africa, from 1865 to His Death, Volume II (of 2), 1869-1873 Continued By A Narrative Of His Last Moments ... From His Faithful Servants Chuma And Susi)
“
injured her ankle during the first week of physical training so that had been the end of her WAAF career. Now Susan extricated her arm from the blanket and glanced at her wristwatch. ‘The NAAFI should be open any time now for some cocoa and supper,’ she commented as Livvy rose to throw some more wood onto the stove that stood in the middle of the room. It was a temperamental thing, often throwing out more smoke than heat. ‘Ouch!’ Livvy cried as she opened the door and it spat at her. ‘I swear this ruddy thing waits for me to do that!’ She hastily threw the log she was holding in and slammed the door shut, causing smoke to billow into the hut and make them all cough. Amanda quickly took out her compact and applied lipstick and powder to her nose, then fluffing her hair up she asked, ‘So who’s coming then?’ As they had all discovered, Amanda hated being seen without her make-up, whereas the rest of them were usually bundled up in layers of clothing just intent on keeping as warm as they could with no thought to how they looked. They all rose and when Nell opened the door a gust of snow blew in at them. ‘Ugh! Bloody weather,’ Susan grumbled as they stepped out into the raging blizzard. ‘Perhaps we should have put the kettle on the stove and made our own drinks tonight!’ ‘Ah, but some of those handsome RAF chaps could be in,’ Amanda pointed out. The RAF base was not far from theirs and when the pilots weren’t flying they often used the NAAFI for a meal. Susan and Livvy exchanged an amused glance, then, heads bent, they picked their way through the deepening snow and just for a moment Livvy thought of the warm, cosy little kitchen back at the lodge. In the very kitchen that Livvy was thinking of, Sunday was just opening the door to John, who had popped in to check that all was well. Their relationship had undergone a subtle change since he had made the unexpected proposal. For a time, they had lost their easy relationship and she had felt slightly embarrassed when in his company and had stopped visiting Treetops as frequently as she had previously. But since the departure of Giles and Livvy they were becoming closer again, finding comfort in each other’s company. ‘How are you all?’ he asked as Sunday quickly closed the door behind him and he stamped the snow from his boots. Already his coat was beginning to steam in the warm atmosphere, and she smiled as she ushered him to the fireside chair and hurried off to set the kettle on the range. ‘We’re fine. Kathy is upstairs getting the twins to sleep.’ Without asking she spooned tea leaves into the pot from the caddy and lifted down two cups
”
”
Rosie Goodwin (Time to Say Goodbye)
“
An inventory of the items in the kitchen of Richard Toky, a member of the prosperous Grocers’ Company, in 1391 gives some idea of fourteenth-century kitchen equipment. It included: for food preparation – two mortars and two pestles, two meat-hooks, two pairs of tongs, two axes and two hatchets, four ‘tables’ [abacuses: calculators], a ‘dressing-knife’, a skimmer, two ladles, and a kneading tub for cooking – three brass pots, two little pans, two frying pans, one chafing pan [used over a charcoal fire for small, delicate dishes], two kettles, four copper pans, three iron spits and a rack, two grid-irons for grilling, two tripods, a grate, a bellows, and some wood and coal for laundry – a water-tankard [the kind of big hod used to deliver water to the household by the tankard-bearer], two washing tubs and a barrel.
”
”
Liza Picard (Chaucer's People: Everyday Lives in Medieval England)
“
I heard you were wrong earlier.” Anna raised an eyebrow at the brunette. “Popcorn kettle black.” “What the fuck?” Tara laughed. “Popcorn kettle black,” Anna said very seriously. Everyone burst into belly laughs, except for Anna. “What?” she asked very sternly. “It’s the pot calling the kettle black,” I said once I had regained enough breath to speak properly again. “What the hell does popcorn kettle black mean?” Paige giggled. “It’s a saying,” Anna said defensively. “My mom used to say it when someone was being a hypocrite.” “You’re right about the meaning,” Rolly said with a smile at the redhead. “But they’re right, it’s the pot calling the kettle black.” “My life is a lie,” Anna said seriously,
”
”
Eric Vall (Without Law 7 (Without Law, #7))
“
effect are base lies, I'll have you and your friend know! However—" he yawned again "—I've been up all day and so, purely coincidentally, I do find myself just a bit sleepy at the moment. The which being so, I think I should take myself off to bed. I'll see you all in the morning." "Good night, Alistair," she said, and smiled as he sketched a salute and disappeared into the night with a chuckle. "You two are really close, aren't you?" Benson observed quietly after McKeon had vanished. Honor raised an eyebrow at her, and the blond captain shrugged. "Not like me and Henri, I know. But the way you look out for each other—" "We go back a long way," Honor replied with another of her half-smiles, and bent to rest her chin companionably on the top of Nimitz's head. "I guess it's sort of a habit to watch out for each other by now, but Alistair seems to get stuck with more of that than I do, bless him." "I know. Henri and I made the hike back to your shuttles with you, remember?" Benson said dryly. "I was impressed by the comprehensiveness of his vocabulary. I don't think he repeated himself more than twice." "He probably wouldn't have been so mad if I hadn't snuck off without mentioning it to him," Honor said, and her right cheek dimpled while her good eye gleamed in memory. "Of course, he wouldn't have let me leave him behind if I had mentioned it to him, either. Sometimes I think he just doesn't understand the chain of command at all!" "Ha!" Ramirez' laugh rumbled around the hut like rolling thunder. "From what I've seen of you so far, that's a case of the pot calling the kettle black, Dame Honor!" "Nonsense. I always respect the chain of command!" Honor protested with a chuckle. "Indeed?" It was Benson's turn to shake her head. "I've heard about your antics at—Hancock Station, was it called?" She laughed out loud at Honor's startled expression. "Your people are proud of you, Honor. They like to talk, and to be honest, Henri and I encouraged them to. We needed to get a feel for you, if we were going to trust you with our lives." She shrugged. "It didn't take us long to make our minds up once they started opening up with us." Honor felt her face heat and looked down at Nimitz, rolling him gently over on his back to stroke his belly fur. She concentrated on that with great intensity for the next several seconds, then looked back up once her blush had cooled. "You don't want to believe everything you hear," she said with commendable composure. "Sometimes people exaggerate a bit." "No doubt," Ramirez agreed, tacitly letting her off the hook, and she gave him a grateful half-smile. "In the meantime, though," Benson said, accepting the change of subject, "the loss of the shuttle beacon does make me more anxious about Lunch Basket." "Me, too," Honor admitted. "It cuts our operational safety margin in half, and we still don't know when we'll finally get a chance to try it." She grimaced. "They really aren't cooperating very well, are they?" "I'm sure it's only because they don't know what we're planning," Ramirez told her wryly. "They're much too courteous to be this difficult if they had any idea how inconvenient for us it is." "Right. Sure!" Honor snorted, and all three of them chuckled. Yet there was an undeniable edge of worry behind the humor, and she leaned back in her chair, stroking Nimitz rhythmically, while she thought. The key to her plan was the combination of the food supply runs from Styx and the Peeps' lousy communications security. Her analysts had been right about the schedule on which the Peeps operated; they made a whole clutch of supply runs in a relatively short period—usually about three days—once per month. Given
”
”
David Weber (Echoes of Honor (Honor Harrington, #8))
“
Sergeant Berry took the kettle from the fire and poured hot water into the tea pot. The tea would be strong. Too strong. Berry came from the North where they seemed to like it that way.
”
”
John Bainbridge (The Shadow of William Quest (William Quest #1))
“
I followed her through the house into a surprisingly large kitchen with yellow and white checkered curtains hanging in the windows. A green ceramic frog with a dish scrubber in his mouth sat on the side of the sink and a cheery red tea kettle was on the spotless white stove. All together it looked like a completely normal kitchen—there was nothing witchy about it at all except for a huge black pot hanging from the rack over the oven. Gwendolyn saw me eyeing it and grinned. “That’s Grams’ gumbo pot. She always says you can’t make good authentic roux in anything but cast iron.” “Oh,” I said. “I thought—” “That we were hunched over the cauldron cackling and brewing spells?” She arched an eyebrow at me. “Sorry,” I said. “I guess there’s a lot about witches I don’t know.” “That’s okay—apparently there’s a lot about vamps I don’t know,” she said, opening a spotless white refrigerator. She brought out a mason jar and held it up.
”
”
Evangeline Anderson (Scarlet Heat (Born to Darkness, #2; Scarlet Heat, #0))
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descriptions of pots by kettles.
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Michael Stagg (False Oath (Nate Shepherd, #4))
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There were women intellectuals challenging racism from within the feminist movement in the nineteenth century. As early as 1831, Black feminist Maria W. Stewart wondered, “How long shall the fair daughters of Africa be compelled to bury their minds and talents beneath a load of iron pots and kettles?”624 In 1851 at a women’s rights convention in Akron, Ohio, Sojourner Truth posed the question “Ain’t I a woman?” to the white women who ignored Black women in their fight for equality.625 In 1892, philosopher Anna Julia Cooper published her book of essays and speeches titled A Voice from the South: By a Black Woman of the South, in which she asks, “Is not woman’s cause broader, and deeper, and grander, than a blue stocking debate or an aristocratic pink tea?”626
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Regan Penaluna (How to Think Like a Woman: Four Women Philosophers Who Taught Me How to Love the Life of the Mind)
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You know, when I was dragged out of my life and brought to your world, people kept telling me over and over again about the way the stars choose our destinies. They told me that our fates are set in stone and sealed by those twinkling little dots of light way off up in the sky. And I told them I didn't believe in fate. No matter how many times predictions and horoscopes and all of it was proved right, I kept scoffing and telling them I didn't believe it." "That's not a surprise, Roxy. You're the most stubborn Fae I've ever met." "Said the pot to the kettle,
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Caroline Peckham (Fated Throne (Zodiac Academy, #6))
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The pot is busy throwing stones at the kettle from inside his glass castle.
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Elliott Rose (Chasing the Wild (Crimson Ridge, #1))
“
Your great mistake is to act the drama
as if you were alone. As if life
were a progressive and cunning crime
with no witness to the tiny hidden
transgressions. To feel abandoned is to deny
the intimacy of your surroundings. Surely,
even you, at times, have felt the grand array;
the swelling presence, and the chorus, crowding
out your solo voice. You must note
the way the soap dish enables you,
or the window latch grants you freedom.
Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity.
The stairs are your mentor of things
to come, the doors have always been there
to frighten you and invite you,
and the tiny speaker in the phone
is your dream-ladder to divinity.
Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into the
conversation. The kettle is singing
even as it pours you a drink, the cooking pots
have left their arrogant aloofness and
seen the good in you at last. All the birds
and creatures of the world are unutterably
themselves. Everything is waiting for you.
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David Whyte (What to Remember When Waking: The Disciplines of an Everyday Life)
“
The pot is busy throwing stones at the kettle from inside his glass house
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Elliott Rose (Chasing the Wild (Crimson Ridge, #1))