Why don’t we call and chew his brain?

No, this is not a line from The Walking Dead (although maybe it is…).  It is a nicely formed malaphor, shared by that malaphor hunter, John Costello.  John was speaking to his wife about calling a handyman and this was her response. It is a mash up of “chew the fat” (to chat) and ” pick his brain” (talking with someone to get information about something).  I particularly like this one as it conjures up an image that was not intended.  This malaphor was also spoken by the pitcher Matt Harvey last year:

Harvey said he did not get a chance to chat with Justin Verlander when the ace made the visit to Port St. Lucie. But Terry Collins , who is close with Tigers manager Jim Leyland, indicated he’d like to make a conversation happen.

“Hopefully I’ll chew his brain a little bit down the road,” Harvey said. “I just sat back and watched.”

http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/mets/post/_/id/61768/harvey-studied-verlander-before-facing-fish