She had the hall wrapped in her hand

This one comes from Peter Baker of The New York Times. His article was discussing Michelle Obama’s speech at the Democratic Convention: “From the minute she entered to Stevie Wonder to the end when she introduced her husband, she had the hall wrapped in her hand.” This is a congruent conflation of “in the palm of her hand” and “wrapped around her little finger”, both meaning to have complete control over someone or something. This is a classic body parts mashup: in this case fingers and hands are the culprits. Here’s the article:

Barack Obama at DNC: I Am ‘Stupid Enough to Speak After Michelle’ – The New York Times (nytimes.com)

A big thank you to Barry Eigen for spotting this perfectly formed malaphor.