We pooled our heads together

Posted: September 14, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: BODY PARTS, head, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

This excellent malaphor was heard at a garden club.  The context was a story about the founding of a garden at the U.S. National Arboretum. The designers were told at the last minute that they needed to make a major change to one of the parts of the garden, so they “pooled our heads together” to quickly come up with an alternative.  Many thanks to Barry Eigen for hearing this one and sending it in.  Barry notes this is a mash up of  “pooled our ideas/resources”  (group individual ideas or money), “pull together (as a team)” (cooperate, work well together), and perhaps, by sound,  “pulled our thoughts (or ideas) together”.  This latter suggestion is intriguing to me, as the sound “pull” and “pool” are indistinguishable here in Western Pennsylvania, resulting in a homonym (the same is true of “hill” and “heel”, as in the classic classified ad, “high hills for sale”).  Perhaps the speaker hailed from Pittsburgh?

He went over the deep edge

Posted: September 11, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Seen on a corporate flyer, this malaphor is a subtle congruent conflation of “over the edge” and “off the deep end”, both meaning to act irrationally or out of control.  Both phrases describe a precipice, hence the confusion.  Also the words “off” and “over” are similar in sound and shape.  I think “edge” and “end” also contribute to the mental hiccup.  A big thanks to Marcia Johnston, author of several books and the website writing.rocks, for spotting this one and passing it on!

Get down to the soup and nuts of it

Posted: September 8, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: FOOD, nut, soup, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The speaker was discussing an issue and wanted to get to the heart of the matter.  This is a mash up of “get down to the nuts and bolts” (get down to the basic facts) and “everything from soup to nuts” (almost everything one can think of).  “Get down to brass tacks” (begin to talk about the important stuff) might also be in the mix given the context.  And then there is the Soup Nazi (nutsy?) who also wanted everyone to just get to the heart of the matter and order soup.  A big thank you to Elaine Hatfield for hearing this one and passing it on!

(Trump) shoots from the cuff

Posted: September 5, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | 2 Comments

Megyn Kelly was talking about Trump’s encounter with Jorge Ramos:

KELLY: When he got up there, you know, in his speech, he was talking about how he thinks they should ban Teleprompters for these politicians.  These presidential candidates which I think, you know, the President actually uses a teleprompter pretty much in most places he goes. But I don’t know that the candidates have been. But the point is, there is a realness to Donald Trump that is missing from so many of these other candidates. They do tend to sound rehearsed and stilted. He is never rehearsed. Obviously he shoots from the cuff and he says everything that comes to his mind which has gotten him in some trouble but I think helps him more than it hurts him. And people are very much connecting to that.

I have posted this malaphor earlier (see March 2014 entry) but it bears repeating, considering the timeliness of this excellent mixed idiom.  Shoot from the cuff is a mash up of “shoot from the hip” and speaking “off the cuff”, both meaning to speak spontaneously and frankly.  (Also see “shoot from the lip” in my Politics section).  Thanks to Sandor Kovacs and Vicki Kovacs for both spotting this one!

The Fed should hold pat

Posted: September 4, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Who is Pat and why is she/he being held?  This malaphor was found on the NY Times website:

“While the Fed may be loath to show a pull back from its proposed rates, a move upwards followed by a downward revision a year from now if we move toward recession would be worse. We are well under the targeted inflation benchmark, the world economies are reeling. I can see no reason to move up rates. The Fed should hold pat and signal a revisiting next year.” (emphasis added)

This is a congruent conflation of “hold firm” and “stand pat”, both meaning to stick to one’s position or opinion.  “Hold fast” (stay the course) certainly is in play here as well, as it fits the context.  “Stand” and “hold” are words that could be confused as they mean similar things in card playing – deciding not to receive any additional cards.  A “pat hand” is a dealt poker hand that does not need improvement.  Of course, it might be the other Pat’s cousin.

A big shout out to Barry Eigen for spotting this one and passing it on!