They are not putting all their marbles in one basket

Posted: July 3, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

This one is from the ESPN show “Pardon the Interruption” (PTI).  There was a discussion about the Lakers and LeBron James’ free agency. Michael Wilbon reported that Magic Johnson [the Lakers’ director of basketball operations] stated that they are not putting all their marbles in one basket. Even Tony Kornheiser then pointed out to Michael that it should have been eggs, not marbles.  This is a nice conflation of “for all the marbles” (all the winnings, spoils, or rewards) and “put all your eggs in one basket” (to invest all of one’s energy in a single venture).  Marbles resemble eggs and vice versa so this is probably the reason for the mix up.  A big thanks to Gerry Abbott for hearing this one and sending it in.

If you liked this malaphor, check out THE book on malaphors, “He Smokes Like a Fish and other Malaphors”, available on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/dp/0692652205.   Buying it is like putting all your malaphors in one basket.

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It’s for all the bananas

Posted: March 1, 2017 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

This was spoken by my sister-in-law recently.  It is a nice mash up of “for all the marbles” (all the winnings or rewards) and “go bananas” (to go mildly crazy).  My guess is that she was also thinking of “lost (one’s) marbles”, also meaning to go crazy.  So the thought process went something like this, perhaps:  marbles → crazy → bananas.   Then again, a “top banana” is also the winner so maybe that was in the mix as well?  Whatever the deconstruction, it is an excellent malaphor and hats off to Mercy Mamalis for uttering it!

banana