He’s really ahead of the eight ball

Posted: April 24, 2017 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

This was found in Baltimore’s newspaper, the Baltimore Sun.  A player at the Univ. of Maryland said of his teammate, “For someone so young, he’s really ahead of the eight ball.”  This is a nice mashup of “ahead of the curve” (at the forefront of leading something) and “behind the eight ball” (in trouble or in a weak or losing position).  “Behind” and “ahead” are certainly part of the problem here, but also the speaker may have been thinking of a curve ball in baseball.   And of course, in eight ball, you certainly want to be ahead of it when making your shots.  A big thanks to Larry Mason who spotted this beauty.

He got the raw end of the stick

Posted: January 19, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

This gem comes from an interview with former Duke turned Maryland basketball player Rasheed Sulaimon’s mother.  She was discussing his dismissal from the team:

“He’s not the type of kid who’s like, ‘I’m not in their program, so forget about them,'” Angela Sulaimon also told the Sun. “Friendship means a lot. He was very positive toward the guys he played with. They were like brothers. It had nothing to do with the guys. A lot of them felt like Rasheed got the raw end of the stick. I felt like Rasheed was sacrificed.”

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/terps/tracking-the-terps/bal-rasheed-sulaimon-s-mother-discusses-her-son-s-dismissal-from-duke-20151021-story.html
This is a mash up of “getting a raw deal” (unfair or bad treatment) and “getting the short end of the stick” (less desirable part).  Both phrases involve someone getting “the shaft”, so to speak.  I can see getting a raw deal or the short end of the stick but the raw end must really be bad.  This malaphor is similar to my 2/15/15 entry, “I’m getting the shaft end of the stick”, which might even be more painful.  https://malaphors.com/2015/02/15/im-getting-the-shaft-end-of-the-stick/   A big shout out to Justin Taylor who ran across this malaphor in the Baltimore Sun.