Firing all the bullets in our quiver

This one was heard on the podcast The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell on March 15. Eddie Fishman, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, was talking about the oil sanctions against Russia and that more could be done, saying “I don’t think we are firing all the bullets in our quiver.” This is a mashup of “arrows in our quiver” (options or alternatives available), “silver bullet” (a seemingly simple solution to a complicated problem) and “firing on all cylinders” (function at a peak level of performance). There is a lot of mixed weaponry in this malaphor.

You can hear this malaphor at 34:27 here:

https://topnewsshow.com/the-last-word-with-lawrence-odonnell-3-15-23/

A big thanks to Frank King for hearing this one and sharing it.