Will this particular idiom never die? Jeez.
/grumbles
I'm afraid not. This particular idiom is at the very nature of the question and to suggest a factual answer exists to something purely notional makes the error that taste is a thing when it is really a process within the brain.
Furthermore, anything that is perceived within the brain is equally unreal as it is also a process rather than the real thing. One would never say that light is a thing. It is a wave of photons much like a wave in the ocean is a wave of water. A wave isn't a thing, it is merely a process.
I contest the very notion that the universe is anything on the premise that It is merely a process of reactions created by energy at its various states. To say anything is a thing makes the mistake that there is substance in the universe. It is insubstantial. One would never say there is a thing between two magnets that are expelling each other, yet we assume an object has substance.
The very notion that anything can correctly be defined within the context that we perceive the universe is bull crap. Total bull crap. everything everyone has ever said is simply full of crap and for that reason I propose that being full of crap is the human condition. You may as well embrace it because you won't escape it.
Can I possibly get anymore weird? I'm trying.
