Submitted by amarraxo t3_11cb5ji in books

I'm reading a book and this is what the paragraph says:

I didn't see how Riley came into this. Riley and the cheeseburger of pain. I wanted that part of the story, but now I felt bad for pushing him to answer.

Is this a regular phrase I just haven't heard of? I couldn't find anything on Google and I'm awfully confused. Thank you!

Edit - the book is The Short Second Life Of Bree Tanner & apparently this was referencing a literal cheeseburger

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laurpr2 t1_ja2iy4e wrote

Your question is the best thing I've read all day. Apparently it's referencing a literal cheeseburger.

According to this person (spoilers? I haven't read the book and it's unclear whether this info is revealed before or after the line in question),

>>!It turns out that Bree was a 15-16 year-old abused homeless runaway. Riley ("the hottest boy I had ever seen, tall and blond and perfect... And his voice was so gentle, so kind") offered to get her a burger. Bree figures she knows "what he would want in exchange," but she's eaten nothing but trash for two weeks, so small-scale prostitution it is.!<

Meyer has several editors, after all; small things might slip by but if "cheeseburger of pain" managed to escape notice as an unintended typo then several people are straight-up incompetent.

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amarraxo OP t1_ja2jpgr wrote

hmmm you could be right and maybe the line was delivered in a confusing way!

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WilliamMcCarty t1_ja2iugg wrote

Either autocorrect or it's just an expression the author made up.

Either way, I'm going to try an incorporate "cheeseburger of pain" into my regular sayings whenever possible.

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Comfortable_Mango_11 t1_ja2j0ed wrote

It's like that saying. No cheeseburger of pain, no chicken fajita of gain.

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daiLlafyn t1_ja2l7hl wrote

I love that. Really speaks to me of the human condition.

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mzieg t1_ja2za02 wrote

“Smokey, mark it zero or you’re entering a cheeseburger of pain.”

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Comfortable_Mango_11 t1_ja2h4wm wrote

Like the tangerine of guilt and the avocado of nostalgia it's just a stupid expression someone just made up. The author probably thought "that sounds cool!"

edit - the "curse of autocorrect" explanation makes sense.

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amarraxo OP t1_ja2hdzo wrote

this makes a lot of sense then. i did think it was a silly thing to add during a relatively serious scene 🤣

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Comfortable_Mango_11 t1_ja2icdm wrote

Startling to think an author would not notice such an obviously wrong word appearing in their Egg McMuffin.

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Erebus172 t1_ja2h48a wrote

I think the consensus is that Meyer meant "_____ bundle of pain" but somehow it autocorrected to "cheeseburger of pain" and no one corrected it.

It is not a regular phrase.

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amarraxo OP t1_ja2haxk wrote

ah okay, this makes a lot of sense! if it was an inside joke related to the story i'd understand, but it seems so random. you're probably right then

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elle_kay_are t1_ja4oc69 wrote

I'm thinking they meant that the actual cheeseburger represents pain. Like the character associates it with hurt. If this person was starving, but the guy bought her a cheeseburger with strings attached (like he expects her to do something she doesn't want to in order for him to give it to her) then it's "the cheeseburger of pain".

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RyanfaeScotland t1_ja5eeuf wrote

I think I know, based on something I heard in a film some time...

  • It was meant to be "a small pounding of pain"
  • But through a typographical error it became "a 1/4 pounding of pain"
  • And of course, in France, this became "a Royale with Cheese of pain" (due to the metric system).
  • And finally this became "a cheeseburger of pain", (likely because of an undisclosed Copyright claim)

I can't back this up with any evidence, but it seems the most logical reason.

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Zubzubs t1_ja2irso wrote

Lol if my brain tried to make sense of it while I was reading it , I would think it was a reference to having a lot of gas and feeling bloated.

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Hypranormal t1_ja55zwg wrote

I'm absolutely befuddled as to why no one will say what the title of the book in question is (it's The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner btw).

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amarraxo OP t1_ja563xw wrote

I think I'll edit the post so people are aware 🥰

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DeneirianScribe t1_ja3d9lh wrote

I haven't read this book, I have no idea what book you're even reading, this is purely speculation, but... That phrase sounds like a Harry Potter title. So maybe it's trying to reference a Harry Potter title as a joking aside? Like a meme-type thought? Again, purely speculation.

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