“Four veteran Homeland Security agents who helped execute the Trump administration’s arrests of pro-Palestinian foreign academics for deportation testified Tuesday that the orders they received were both highly unusual and described by senior officials as urgent,” Politico reports.
Said agent Darren McCormack, who arrested Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil: “Somebody at a higher level than the people I was speaking to had an interest in him.”
Said agent Brian Cunningham, who arrested Tufts University student Rümeysa Öztürk: “There were a lot of hands in the fishbowl.”
This is a conflation of “life in a fishbowl” (a place having no privacy) and “too many hands in the pot” (a situation where too many people are involved in a project). Not sure but maybe the agent was averse to saying the word “pot”? A big thanks to John Costello for spotting this one and sending it in!
Frustrated by certain medications treating symptoms that exacerbate others, this malaphor was uttered. It’s a conflation of “putting the cart before the horse” (to do things in the wrong order) and “the tail is wagging the dog” (a situation where a small part is controlling the whole of something). Lots of tails and animals here. A shout out to Bruce Ryan for catching this one and sending it in.
Conservative activist and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk said Monday he is trusting the Trump administration to handle the files related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein:
“Honestly, I’m done talking about Epstein for the time being. I’m going to trust my friends in the administration, I’m going to trust my friends in the government to do what needs to be done, solve it, ball’s in their hands,” he continued.
This is a congruent conflation of “the ball’s in your court” and “in your hands”, both meaning under one’s control or in possession. Certainly you catch a ball with your hands so the mind sees “ball” and attaches that word to “hand”. in all likelihood. “Out of our hands” may also be in the mix, although the meaning is the complete opposite to what the speaker was trying to convey. Given the context, a Freudian slip?
Kudos to Mike Kovacs for spotting this one and sending it in!
A daughter was telling her Dad that she was so busy at work that she had to skip lunch and work extra hours. He advised her not to do that everyday or “you will burn yourself into the ground”. This is a congruent conflation of “burn (oneself) out” and “run (oneself) into the ground”, both meaning to make someone ineffective through overuse. “Burn to the ground” (to totally destroy something) might also be in the mental mix. A big thank you to John Kooser for sending this one in!
This one was heard in episode 1, Season 3 of the best television series of all time, The Wire. Lieutenant Daniels is telling a disappointed Officer McNulty (who isn’t able to get the bad guy he really wants to get): “There’s other fish in the barrel.” Regarding whether this was intentional, since it was a serious scene, I’m going to rule that it was unintentional. This is a conflation of “other fish in the sea” (other excellent people, things, or possibilities in the world that one may find) and “like shooting fish in a barrel” (ridiculously easy). Props (Proposition Joe?) to Barry Eigen for hearing this one and sending it in.
A store owner was talking about his staff sometimes missing things and he said, “every once in a blue while they forget to do something.” This is a conflation of “(every) once in a while” (occasionally or sometimes) and “once in a blue moon” (rarely or infrequently). Maybe the speaker was thinking of a “blue whale” when he said “blue”. Who knows? A big thanks to Katie Minnock for hearing this one and sending it in!
This one was heard on the podcast All In With Chris Hayes. You can hear it as the 40:14 mark:
It is a mashup of “beat the drum” (strongly advocate for) and “lead the charge” (to be one of the first to do something). A big thanks to frequent contributor Frank King, the Mental Health Comedian.
The speaker and her husband were getting ready for their morning walk. She said, “We’ll have to walk fast so I can get my blood rate up.” This is a congruent conflation of “get my heart rate up” and “get my blood flowing”, both meaning to get active or start moving. A healthy hurrah to Beverly Rollins Sheingorn VanDerhei for saying this one and sending it in!
The speaker was exasperated with an adversary in court. She told her husband, “Well, talking to him goes in one ear and out of his ass. It’s simply useless.” This is a mashup of “in one ear and out the other” (essentially ignored or forgotten almost immediately after being heard) and “talk out (of) (one’s) ass” (to talk nonsense or exaggerate one’s achievements). The speaker must have been thinking her adversary was an “ass” when she jumbled the two phrases. A shout out to Marykathryn Kopec for unintentionally uttering this one and sharing it with us! Paints an interesting picture.
Scott Galloway, a podcaster and professor at New York University, calmly explained that he believes Musk has “come off the tracks” when conservative host Piers Morgan asked if he accepted that Musk was a “genius.” I believe this is a rare triple conflation of “come unhinged” and “off the rails”, both meaning to behave in a way that is wild and unacceptable, and “off track”, meaning straying off the central subject. “Tracks” and “rails” are similar and add to the confusion. Here is the article:
Malaphors 
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