This is the big, 40,000 foot question
Posted: January 28, 2019 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 000 dollar question, 000 foot view, expressions, Here and Now, humor, idioms, malaphor, NPR, Roger Stone, the 10, the 64, Tim Mak, Trump, wordplay, words Leave a commentTim Mak, NPR political reporter on the NPR radio show, Here and Now, was discussing the recent indictment of Roger Stone. He was retelling what was in the indictment, but questioning what evidence Special Counsel Robert Mueller has in his possession. This gem can be heard at 5:15 of the following:
https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2019/01/25/roger-stone-indicted
This is a wonderful conflation of “the 64,000 dollar question” (a question very important and/or difficult to answer) and “the 10,000 (or sometimes 20, 30, or 40,000) foot view” (a description of a problem or issue that provides general information, but short on details). Idioms containing numbers are often jumbled. I have posted some other great ones, such as “hindsight is 50/50” (https://malaphors.com/2016/12/20/hindsight-is-5050/) and “we were 3 sheets passing in the night” (https://malaphors.com/2016/10/25/we-were-3-sheets-passing-in-the-night/). A big thanks to Tom Justice for hearing this one and sending it in!
I wish I could read between the tea lines
Posted: January 24, 2019 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Art Rooney II, expressions, humor, idiom, idioms, language, malaphor, read between the lines, reading the tea leaves, WDVE, words Leave a commentThis was heard in a morning radio show (WDVE) interview with the Pittsburgh Steelers’ owner, Art Rooney II. Mr. Rooney was talking about the wide receiver, Antonio Brown, and what will happen to him in the future. This is a nice conflation of “reading the tea leaves” (predicting on little bits of information) and “reading between the lines” (perceiving an obscure or unexpressed meaning). Both idioms pertain to perceiving or predicting, and both contain the word “reading”. “Lines” and “leaves” are also similar sounding words. This is similar to my prior posted malaphor, “read between the tea leaves” :
A shout out to Mike Ameel for hearing this one and sending it in.
You can’t get a leopard to change his stripes
Posted: January 23, 2019 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: a leopard cannot change its spots, a tiger cannot change its stripes, expressions, humor, malaphor, wordplay, words Leave a commentThis was uttered by an employee commenting on a work group that seem set in its ways. It is a nice congruent conflation of “a leopard cannot change its spots” and “can’t change one’s stripes”, both meaning that people are incapable of changing their essential nature. The speaker might also have been thinking of the expression “a tiger cannot change its stripes”, meaning the same as the two expressions above. Confusing tigers and leopards is certainly understandable, both being big cats. A big thanks to Steven Michael for hearing this one!
I can’t put my tongue on it
Posted: January 21, 2019 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: can't put my finger on it, expressions, humor, idioms, language, malaphor, on the tip of my tongue, words Leave a commentA girl was asked what gift she wanted for Christmas. She couldn’t remember the name of the toy, and uttered this congruent conflation of “can’t put my finger on it” and “on the tip of my tongue”, both meaning something one can’t quite recall. Fingers have tips so perhaps that is what led to the speaker’s confusion. Or maybe she had watched too many reruns of the movie “A Christmas Story”. A big thanks to Hannah Evanuik for overhearing this one!
My old car shit the bucket
Posted: January 18, 2019 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: expressions, humor, idioms, kicked the bucket, language, malaphor, shit the bed, wordplay, words Leave a commentMaggie Acker uttered this beauty when talking about her car that stopped running. It is a congruent conflation of “kicked the bucket” and “shit the bed”, both idioms referring to something or someone that died or failed. “Shit the bed” is a relatively new idiom (I found it in the Wiktionary – https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/shit_the_bed ). It usually refers to something that breaks and can’t be repaired, like a cell phone. Interestingly, in the U.K, it means to express surprise. The mental mix up probably also was caused by the similar sounding words “kick” and “shit”. A big, big thanks to John Fischer who heard this one and passed it on.
You hit the bottom line
Posted: January 17, 2019 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bottom line, hit the nail on the head, idioms, malaphor, mixed idioms, wordplay Leave a commentListening to the radio this morning and the DJs were discussing Trump’s wall speech and the Democratic response. One guy was making the point that both stated their positions but no minds were changed. To which the other guy replied “ you hit the bottom line”. This is a conflation of “hit the nail on the head” (exactly the right thing) and “the bottom line” (by extension, the most important aspect of something). “Hit bottom” (lowest point in a decline) might also have been in the speaker’s mind, considering the nadir in politics right now with the shutdown. A big thanks to Steve Grieme for hearing this one on his morning commute and sending it in.
Everything’s peachy-dory
Posted: January 16, 2019 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: expressions, humor, hunky-dory, malaphor, malaphors, peachy keen, Trump, wordplay, words Leave a commentWhile I have posted this one before (https://malaphors.com/2014/03/16/thats-just-peachy-dory/), it bears repeating as President Trump said it a few days ago. Let’s go to the transcript:
THE PRESIDENT: Well, the news incorrectly reported. Because I said, well, if we go back and everything is peachy- dory, and you say, “We’ll talk over 30 days,” at the end of 30 days, are you going to give us great border security, which includes a wall or a steel barrier.
This is a mash up of the expressions peachy keen and hunky-dory, both meaning fine or satisfactory. This seems to be a fairly common malaphor, based on internet hits. Now hunky keen is a different matter….Several of you caught this one, including Steve Grieme and Mike Kovacs, both expert malaphor hunters.
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