He will win on his Dad’s coat strings!

Posted: November 5, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

This one was a Facebook post. The poster was responding to Corey O’Connor’s bid for mayor of Pittsburgh. He is the son of former mayor Bob O’Connor. This is a blend of “on the coattails of (someone)” (benefiting from someone else’s success as a means to achieve one’s own success) and “play/tug on (one’s) heartstrings” (elicit strong feelings of sympathy or fondness). The poster may have been not only thinking of the mayor connection but also of Bob’s untimely death because of cancer cutting short his term in office as mayor. A big thanks to Dan Simon for spotting this one in the Facebook comments wild (by the way, Corey did win!).

It’s as clear as a bone this morning

Posted: September 22, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

That was the weather report from local channel KDKA in Pittsburgh yesterday.  This is a mash up of “as dry as a bone” (extremely dry) and “clear as a bell” (very clear).  The weatherman was discussing a very clear and dry (little humidity) day and managed to describe both in one nice malaphor!  I think this should be in our standard lexicon to describe those beautiful clear, dry days, don’t you?  Hats off to Bill Shaffer who heard this beauty.

clear-bone

He was known to get hot off the collar

Posted: July 24, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: collar | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Breaking malaphor news!!  This is a mix of “hot under the collar” (angry) and “hot off the press” (just released or freshly printed).  It was heard by the keen ears of Mike Kovacs when he was watching the local news on WPXI in Pittsburgh.  The WPXI correspondent reports that neighbors say the suspect was known to get “hot off the collar.”

The people were flying off the shelf

Posted: April 4, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: handle, shelf | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Perhaps this is not a malaphor, and just a phrase misused, but I had to post it anyway.  I heard this one last night on The Nightly Sports Call, a sports call-in t.v. show in the Pittsburgh area.  The host, Bob Pompeani, was referring to the previous night’s show and the callers’ reaction to the video showing Rutgers coach Mike Rice’s antics.  Bob of course meant to say “flying off the handle” but perhaps was thinking of the many callers and trying to respond to all of them.