This is not coming out of whole cloth
Posted: January 22, 2020 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: coming out of left field, expressions, humor, Lev Parnas, malaphor, Morning Joe, out of whole cloth, Trump, Willie Geist, words Leave a commentWillie Geist on MSNBC’s Morning Joe said this one, discussing Lev Parnas’ statements to Rachel Maddow. It is a nice congruent conflation of “coming out of left field” and ” made out of whole cloth”, both meaning something utterly false or fictional. “Out of” is in both phrases, contributing to the mixup. A tip of the hat to Donna Calvert who heard this one and immediately contacted Malaphor Central.
I’m not the sharpest tack in the drawer
Posted: January 20, 2020 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: expressions, humor, language, malaphor, not the sharpest knife in the drawer, sharp as a tack, words Leave a commentThe speaker was not feeling well and mentioned to someone about her mental acuity for the day. This is an incongruent conflation (opposite meanings) of “not the sharpest knife in the drawer” (not very smart) and “sharp as a tack” (intelligent and quick thinking). As everyone knows, there are many expressions out there describing the dull witted individual, and these expressions are often mixed up. I have posted several of these mashups, including “not the brightest tool in the shed”, https://malaphors.com/2013/06/24/not-the-brightest-tool-in-the-shed/, “not the sharpest bulb in the shed”, https://malaphors.com/2017/08/03/not-the-sharpest-bulb-in-the-shed/, and “not the brightest knife in the drawer”, https://malaphors.com/2018/02/14/hes-not-the-brightest-knife-in-the-drawer/, to name just a few. A big thanks to Yvonne Stam for admitting she uttered this one and realizing it was a malaphor.
Giuliani blew his lid on that
Posted: January 19, 2020 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: blew his stack, expressions, flipped his lid, humor, language, Lev Parnas, malaphor, Rachel Maddow, Trump, words Leave a commentThis one was uttered by Lev Parnas, Rudy Giuliani’s assistant in the Rachel Maddow interview. Here it is:
Lev was describing Giuliani’s reaction to hearing Ukranian President Zelensky’s decision not to announce an investifation specifically mentioning Joe Biden’s name. It is a nice congruent conflation of ” “flipped his lid” and “blew his top/stack”, both meaning to become extremely angry or mad. A huge thanks to Mike Kovacs for hearing this one and sending it in.
You hit it right on the point
Posted: January 13, 2020 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Andy Brenner, CNBC, expressions, hit the nail on the head, humor, malaphor, On Point, Rick Santelli, words Leave a commentThis one was uttered by Andy Brenner (National Alliance Securities) on CNBC, referring to a comment made by Rick Santelli. It is a congruent conflation of “hit the nail on the head” and “on point”. both meaning to be exactly right, accurate, or perfect. Nails have points so the mental hiccup occurred with that visual, presumably. A big thanks to big brother John Hatfield for hearing this one and sending it in. #RickSantelli #CNBC
People could be throwing risk to the wind
Posted: January 10, 2020 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: humor, idiomi, Jeremy Siegel, language, malaphor, Market Watch, run a risk, take a risk, throw caution to the wind, Wharton Leave a commentJeremy Siegel, professor of finance at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, expressed what he perceives as one of the biggest market risks in 2020, in an interview with Barron’s Group’s Market Brief, which aired on Monday. Here’s the whole sentence: “Actually, one of the dangers is that people could be throwing risk to the wind and this thing could be a runaway.” And here’s the source: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/man-who-called-dow-20000-says-one-of-the-biggest-stock-market-dangers-in-2020-is-people-could-be-throwing-risk-to-the-wind-2020-01-06. This is a nice mashup of “throwing caution to the wind” (abandon one’s cautiousness in order to take a risk) and “taking (or running) a risk” (do something with a high probability of a negative outcome). A big thanks to Barry Eigen for spotting this one and sending it in. #JeremySiegel
That ought to hit the ticket
Posted: January 9, 2020 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: expressions, hit the mark, humor, language, malaphor, malaphors, punch one's ticket, words Leave a commentThis was said, referring to something that should be successful. It is a congruent conflation of “hit the mark” and “punch (one’s) ticket”, both meaning an action that leads to success (the latter to a promotion usually). Hit the ticket has a nice ring to it. A big thanks to Martin Pietrucha for texting this one and realizing it was a malaphor.
I know the material off the back of my hand
Posted: January 6, 2020 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: expressions, humor, language, like the back of my hand, malaphor, off the top of my head, words Leave a commentA daughter was telling her father about a recent test. This is a mashup of “know it like the back of my hand” (extremely familiar with something) and “off the top of my head” (from memory without careful consideration). Either this is a malaphor or maybe she actually had the materials written on her hand? A big thanks to John Kooser for hearing this one.
A lot of Senators have reserved their fire
Posted: January 4, 2020 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: expressions, hold your fire, humor, idioms, Jonathan Alleno, malaphor, reserve judgment, words Leave a comment
You put your finger on the nail
Posted: January 2, 2020 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: expressions, humor, language, malaphor, words, you hit the nail on the head, you nailed it, you put your finger on it Leave a comment2020 has started off on the right foot, malaphor wise. On New Year’s Day, Christiane Amanpour said this beauty on CNN’s “New Day”. Let’s go to the transcript:
http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/2001/01/nday.04.html
It is a congruent conflation of “put your finger on it” and hit the nail on the head” (and “nailed it”), all meaning to describe a situation or problem exactly. The speaker might have been thinking of fingernails when she uttered this one. A big thanks to Ruth Dilts for nailing this one. @camanpour @NewDay
You hit it right off the park
Posted: December 27, 2019 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: expressions, hit it out of the park, humor, malaphor, malaphors, right off the bat, words Leave a commentThis was heard on a conference call. This is a nice baseball metaphor mashup of “hit it out of the park” (to do something successful or an outstanding achievement) and “right off the bat” (immediately, without delay). Now if the person had hit it right off the bat and out of the park that would be an immediate outstanding achievement, right? Or just a home run? By the way, it seems like hitting it out of the park is a favorite idiom to mashup. A few past examples for your reading pleasure are “we really nailed it out of the park” https://malaphors.com/2015/08/18/we-really-nailed-it-out-of-the-park/ and “they blew it out of the park” https://malaphors.com/2012/10/27/they-blew-it-out-of-the-park/ A big thanks to Mike Kovacs for hearing this one and sending it in right off the park to malaphor central.
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