It’s got everything under the book
Posted: October 16, 2017 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: by the book, everything under the sun, expressions, humor, language, malaphor, malaphors, under the hood, words 1 CommentThe speaker was describing all the rides and other attractions at a particular amusement park and blurted this malaphor out. It’s a nice conflation of “everything under the sun” (nearly everything one can reasonably imagine) and I believe “by the book” (strictly following the rules). However, because of the word “every”, the mix up could include “every trick in the book” (every possible way to achieve something). There may also be a malaphor thyme, here, and the speaker might have been thinking of the phrase “look under the hood” (examine the engine in a car). A shout out to Caleb Harris for hearing this one and sending it in!
If you enjoyed this one, check out every malaphor under the book in “He Smokes Like a Fish and other Malaphors”, my new book available on Amazon for a mere 6.99. That comes down to a penny a laugh.
Malaphors 
How about they “pledged to pull out all the steps”? A mashup of pull out all the stops and take steps. Here’s the quote: “Environmentalist[s] and Democrats have pledged to pull out all the steps to save the Clean Power Plan, which they say is the most significant U.S. policy to reduce carbon emissions that has ever been put into place.” Probably just a typo, but a malaphor nonetheless? http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/354531-epa-to-begin-repealing-obamas-landmark-climate-rule-tuesday