naomikritzer | Conversation last night

I can't remember how this came up, but while washing dishes I sang my daughters the song that goes:

Love is something if you give it away, give it away, give it away,
Love is something if you give it away, you end up having more.
It's just like a magic penny; hold it tight, and you won't have any.
Lend and spend it and you'll have so many, they'll roll all over the floor.

Molly: I wish I had a penny like that.
Me: You only get to have things like that metaphorically.
Molly: There should be a metaphor machine, where you could put in the metaphor and get the real object.
Me: That could be dangerous. What if something was like a vicious dragon?
Molly: Well, you should be able to choose what you put it. {ponders} Actually, I'd want a magic quarter. Or a magic dollar coin.

(Yes, I know technically "it's just like a magic penny" is a simile and not a metaphor but the expression is "speaking metaphorically." I don't think there's even an equivalent phrase for similes; I think they just get absorbed by the metaphors, and I deserve a non-metaphorical cookie for the restraint I'm showing but not putting in a hilariously tortured metaphor here to go with the word "absorbed.")