Son staring at his toast in the toaster:
A watched toaster never pops.”
Then he posed
Is the phrase ‘a watched pot never boils’ a kitchen myth or life advice?”
Me: Yes.
He liked that.
I had to look up that origin. This is one of the proverbs ascribed to Poor Richard, which was the pseudonym that Benjamin Franklin used when publishing his widely popular annual almanac. As a scientist, He would have been aware that watching a pot has no effect on how long it takes to boil. Like many of the most effective proverbs, this one is poetic rather than literal.
Boiling water takes as long as it takes, much like life.
