I don’t want to reinvent the horse
Posted: February 11, 2013 Filed under: ANIMALS, horse, THINGS, wheel | Tags: beat a dead horse, blended idioms, expressions, horse, humor, language, malaphors, mixed idioms, reinvent the wheel, wheel, words 1 CommentThis malaphor is a mash up of “reinvent the wheel” (make unnecessary preparations) and “beat a dead horse” (waste time trying to do something that will not succeed), both involving wasted time. A big shout out to Cecily for providing this beauty.
Malaphors 
I subscribe to http://www.dictionary.com for their word of the day. I save them in a file to use in my book-writing endeavor. These 2 may come in handy:
catachresis \kat-uh-KREE-sis\, noun:
Misuse or strained use of words, as in a mixed metaphor, occurring either in error or for rhetorical effect
zeugma \ZOOG-muh\, noun:
The use of a word to modify or govern two or more words when it is appropriate to only one of them or is appropriate to each but in a different way, as in to wage war and peace or On his fishing trip, he caught three trout and a cold.