Everybody takes it as whole cloth

Posted: May 10, 2017 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

This was uttered by President Trump’s press secretary, Sean Spicer, at the May 9, 2017 press conference.  He was responding to a question about James Clapper’s testimony in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee involving Russian interference in the last US Presidential election.  Here is what he said:

MR. SPICER:  Sure, I mean, in the sense that I’m not going to question.  But I think the interesting thing is on all the other issues that he testifies about everybody takes it as whole cloth, that if he says anything he must — he was the DNI.  So when you guys want him to speak for the entire 17 agencies, you sort of assume that that’s what he’s doing.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/05/09/daily-press-briefing-press-secretary-sean-spicer-46

Considering the context, this is a mash up of “cut out of whole cloth”, meaning completely fictional or utterly false, and “takes (something) as gospel”, meaning believing something that is undeniably true.  Mr. Spicer switched these, and thought I guess that “whole cloth” means it’s true.  I wonder how he would describe some of the President’s tweets?  Interestingly, the phrase “cut out of whole cloth” is a reference to tailors who would falsely advertise garments being “cut out of whole cloth,” when in reality, they were pieced together from different cuts.  A big thanks to that Malaphor Man on the Street Mike Kovacs!

Push the trigger

Posted: March 30, 2017 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment
This one was said by Chris Matthews (“Hardball”) regarding Trump vs. Kim Jong-un, and what would cause one of them to react.  It’s a nice mashup of I think “have a finger on the button” (the person who controls nuclear weapons) and “pull the trigger” (commit to a certain course of action), given the context.  “Push the right button” or “push somebody’s buttons” (doing exactly  the right thing to get the result you want) might also be in the mix, as well as “press the panic button” (to overreact to a negative situation), again given the context.  “Push” and “pull” are the culprits here.  A big thanks to “My Ol’ Pal” (MOP) Beatrice Zablocki for hearing this and sending it in.  Readers of my book and followers of this blog might also know MOP as she has given much guidance to me on malaphor interpretations over the years.  I also dedicated my book, “He Smokes Like a Fish and other Malaphors”, (available on Amazon!) to her.

We didn’t want to just jam them out in a fire hose

Posted: January 28, 2017 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

This is another beauty from Sean Spicer, Trump’s Press Secretary.  At a news conference in response to a question about why President Trump has not undertaken all of the “day one” actions he had promised, Spicer replied that the administration did not want to “just jam them out in a fire hose.”

There is the dialogue: “Why not pursue all those on Day One, as he promised in a contract with the voters?”  Spicer said the Trump administration doesn’t want to “just jam them out in a fire hose.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-sheepish-sean-spicer-shows-a-trump-white-house-with-some-capacity-for-shame/2017/01/23/9d9729bc-e1bb-11e6-a547-5fb9411d332c_story.html?utm_term=.2eb7c89ac076

This is a mash up of “jam (something) down (someone’s) throat” (to compel someone to accept something) and  “drinking from a fire hose” (to be inundated by more of something than one is capable of handling).  A big thanks to David Barnes for catching this one and sending it in!

sean-spicer-1

 

There is not enough respect shown to ordinary people busting their necks

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

This beauty was uttered by Vice President Joe Biden on MSNBC’s Morning Joe.  He was talking about both parties  and noting that they were not very good “at listening to the concerns of ordinary people busting their necks.”  http://info.msnbc.com/_news/2016/07/27/35882707-morning-joe-news-joe-biden-says-the-democratic-party-overall-hasnt-spoken-enough-to-white-working-class-voters?lite

This is a nice congruent conflation of “busting their butts” and “breaking their necks”, both meaning to work very hard.  The confusion not only stems from the similar meanings of both phrases but also the words “bust” and “break”.  In addition, as noted here many times, body parts are often mixed up in the wonderful world of malaphors.  A big thanks to Linda Bernstein for catching this in the NY Times and passing it on!

Did you like this one?  Well, I have an entire section devoted to malaphors spoken by politicians in my new book He Smokes Like a Fish and other Malaphors!  And malaphors are not partial to one political party.  Read great ones uttered by Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, and more!!!  Get it on Amazon now at http://www.amazon.com/dp/0692652205!

joe biden

 

Trump’s comment about Megyn Kelly possibly a malaphor?

Posted: August 10, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

At the outset, this is not a political forum and I am not making any political statement.  I am merely suggesting that the Donald might have been confusing his idioms and so I am focusing solely on language here.

Here is the now famous comment:

“You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes,” Trump said during an interview with CNN’s Don Lemon on Friday night. “Blood coming out of her wherever.”  He later said that he was suggesting that blood was coming out of Kelly’s ears and nose, indicating anger.

This may be a mix of “out for blood” and “looking daggers at me”, both indicating anger and both consistent with the context.  “Smoke coming out of her ears” might also have been in the subconscious, as that expression also describes someone angry, often depicted literally in cartoons.  This is probably a better explanation than his follow up regarding noses and ears, both not describing anger as far as I know (as an aside, since he said he “could see blood coming out..”,  the seemingly unanimous conclusion of “wherever” doesn’t seem to be consistent, since that is not something one “could see” in the way one might be able to “see” another person’s eyes).

I posted a Trump malaphor recently (see the July 21, 2015 malaphor – https://malaphors.com/2015/07/21/i-have-a-pulse-to-the-ground/) so he does jumble his expressions.

 

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