Dead smack in the middle

This one might be understood by only those over fifty years old. A couple were talking about driving to a fairly congested shopping area and the husband said they would be going “dead smack in the middle of rush hour”. This is a congruent conflation of “dead center” and smack dab in the middle”, both meaning right in the middle or most central part of something. The latter idiom is a bit old-fashioned, but is the title of a great Ry Cooder song, Here it is:

A big thanks to John Kooser for uttering this one and sending it in! Enjoy Ry everyone!