2019 Malaphor of the Year – Number 6

I know this is what you have been anxiously waiting for – the Malaphor of the Year.  It has been a great year for idiom mashups, many uttered by our Malaphorer in Chief, Donald Trump.  In the past, I have narrowed the nominations down to five, but this year the competition was so stiff that I added a sixth nomination.  So without further ado (drum roll please), let the countdown begin with Number 6, a perfectly formed blend:

He’s a pillar of salt (submitted May 2019)

This one came from Cape Town, South Africa.  One of the contestants on the tv show “The Bachelor South Africa” was describing her dad.  It is a mix of “pillar of strength” (a supportive or emotionally strong person) and “salt of the earth” (a genuine and morally sound person).  Both idioms describe a person of good character, probably creating the confusion.  Also, as the contibutor of this malaphor said, the speaker may have been thinking of that Biblical pillar of salt, Lot’s wife.   A big thanks to Erika Bornman who heard this beauty and sent it in all the way from Cape Town, South Africa.