She needs to get her ducks in order

Posted: December 23, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: ANIMALS, duck, house, PLACES | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments
Cropped headshot of Matt Lauer

Cropped headshot of Matt Lauer (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Matt Lauer  uttered this malaphor last week on the Today show.   He said that the winner of the MegaMillions lottery “needs to get her ducks in order”, a mash up of “ducks in a row” and “house in order”, both meaning to get organized.   This congruent conflation is probably commonly said,  as ducks walk in an orderly fashion and also in a row, both conjuring up the same image.  A big thanks to Victoria Ameel-Kovacs for sending this one in!

Ingrown players

Posted: December 9, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: house, WORD BLENDS | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

If you have been following this blog and my website – http://www.malaphors.com –  you know that the sports world is a gold mine for malaphors.  This beauty was heard on a local sports radio talk show (Pittsburgh).  A guy was talking about the Pirates and criticized the organization for focusing exclusively on “ingrown players” rather than seeking free agents.  This is a congruent conflation of “home-grown” and “in-house”, both meaning something local or conducted within the organization.   Just wondering, but was Tom Herr, the second baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals, an in-grown ballplayer?  A big thanks to Justin Taylor for hearing this one and passing it along!

TommyHerr1983.jpg