We have to keep our finger on the ball
Posted: March 23, 2015 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: congruent conflation, expressions, eyes on the ball, finger on the pulse, humor, language, malaphor, malaphors, mixed idioms, words 4 CommentsThis beauty was heard on a conference call by Gary Kelly, a faithful malaphor follower. It is a congruent conflation of “finger on the pulse” and “eyes on the ball”, both involving attention and monitoring something. The mash up also conjures up the image of Lucy keeping her finger on the football and letting go just as Charlie Brown goes to kick it. This is another malaphor mixing body parts, something that seems to happen frequently. A big thanks to Gary Kelly!
Malaphors 
Dave. Who said this one? I’m telling you, those conference calls are the mother of all malaphors.
Sent from my iPhone
Not an SSA conference call. From a high school friend.
Reblogged this on Mindful Digressions and commented:
I’ve been meaning to do this for a long time.
As the self-anointed Malaphor King points out, “a malaphor is a mixture of two idioms, creating a sort of malaprop in metaphor form. They are uttered by everyone unintentionally. The best ones are the most subtle, sounding correct at first blush and then leading to quizzical looks.”
If you get a kick out of how people use and abuse our language, and if you love hearing people use mixed metaphors, or “malaphors,” you need to visit his site. He frequently posts gems like this and I always get a chuckle out of each and every one.
Please do yourself a favor and go visit his site. His posts really hit the ticket. Enjoy.
Comments are closed here, so if you have something to say, say it on his blog.
Because if you keep your eye on the pulse and your finger on the ball, that’s just creepy…