A few years ago, I came across an article suggesting some kinder replacements for common sayings that are, when you think about them, pretty violent. Things like killing two birds with one stone, or there being more than one way to skin a cat. The article proposed vegetable-based alternatives (“more than one way to peel a potato” is the one that stuck in my head). At the time I think I had a chuckle and moved on, but it obviously stuck with me, and I occasionally find myself almost drawing on one of those well-worn phrases then deciding that actually, it’s not quite fit for my purposes. Read on to see where this is going…