Plenty of hurdles to climb

Posted: May 11, 2020 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments
This malaphor was found in the The Boston Globe (below), announcing this year’s NFL schedule and discussing the New England Patriots’ challenges.  It is a mashup of “mountains to climb” (difficult challenges) and “clearing a hurdle” (overcoming an obstacle).  For some reason,  the phrase “clearing a hurdle” gets mixed up with other idioms a lot.  I have posted many on this website, including “And I’ve only jumped through the first one of these hurdles”, “we’ve jumped over the last hoop”, and one of my all time favorites, “we have so many hurdles to cross”.  https://malaphors.com/2014/04/25/and-ive-only-jumped-through-the-first-one-of-these-hurdles/  https://malaphors.com/2014/02/15/we-have-so-many-hurdles-to-cross/  https://malaphors.com/2018/01/23/weve-jumped-over-the-last-hoop/
Perhaps the writer was thinking of the great Jimmy Cliff song “Many Rivers to Cross” when he wrote this.  A big thanks to John Costello for spotting this one and sending it in.  here’s the link:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/05/07/sports/patriots-2020-schedule/

Patriots’ 2020 schedule released: Open vs. Dolphins at home; back-to-back games in Los Angeles in December

With multiple trips to the west coast and one big one to visit the defending Super Bowl champions, the Patriots have plenty of hurdles to climb this season.

She’s trying to walk this needle

Posted: November 21, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The election is over, but the malaphors continue to flood in.  This one was heard on MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews.   Discussing Kelly Ayotte’s (R-NH) response to the question of Donald Trump being a role model, James Pindell of the Boston Globe uttered this gem.  It is a congruent conflation of “walk a thin (fine) line” and “thread the needle”, both meaning to skillfully navigate through a tough dilemma.  “Toe the line” might also be in the mix, with the speaker thinking toes do the walking.   A big thanks to Sally Adler for hearing this one and sending it in!

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