ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Cow Tools

Well kiddo, cow tools are not actually tools made for cows. It's just a funny name that people use to describe strange or confusing objects that are not really useful for anything.

The term "cow tools" comes from a cartoon that was published in the New Yorker magazine back in 1921. The cartoon showed a group of cows looking at some odd-looking implements (or tools) that were lying on the ground, and one of the cows says "strange-looking tools, I wonder what they're for?"

Nowadays, people use the term "cow tools" to describe things that might look like tools, but are not really good for anything. For example, if you see a gadget that seems to have a lot of buttons and switches, but you can't figure out what it's supposed to do, you might call it a "cow tool".

So remember, if you hear someone talking about "cow tools", it's just a silly way of describing things that don't make much sense.
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