Watch my words

Boomer Esiason said this one on the NFL pre-game show last week.  It is a nice congruent conflation of “mark my words” and “read (or watch) my lips”, both meaning to pay attention or listen very carefully.  This is similar to last February’s malaphor, “read my words”, involving the same mash-up.  https://malaphors.com/2015/02/13/read-my-words-houston-does-not-get-out-of-the-first-round-this-year/.  Both malaphors harken back to the George H.W. Bush era – “Read my lips.  No new taxes.”  A big thanks to that frequent malaphor contributor Steve Grieme!