Trump sees a window and he’s taking it

Posted: November 16, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment
This one is from an online article posted by John Cassidy, the fine New Yorker columnist, quoting another pundit on the Sessions firing. “This is a frontal assault on the Mueller investigation”, Susan Hennessey, the executive editor of the Lawfare blog, wrote on Twitter.  “Trump sees a window and he’s taking it.” This is a conflation of “sees an opening” and “window of opportunity”, both meaning a short period of time in which one has a favorable opportunity to do or accomplish something.  A window is an opening, and thus the reason for the mashup.  Kudos to John Costello for spotting this one and sending it in.
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Trump’s window… is sinking

Posted: June 5, 2017 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

This nice malaphor was spotted in the PowerPost section of the Washington Post:

“THE HONEYMOON IS OVER:

“– Trump’s window to score early legislative victories is sinking as Congress’s summer recess nears — giving the president just two months to revive his health-care and tax efforts before lawmakers depart Capitol Hill for a long break.”

Here’s the source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2017/05/31/daily-202-the-gop-s-invisible-agenda/592d9df4e9b69b2fb981dbf8/?utm_term=.e07bf7d92b04

It is a mashup of “a window of opportunity is closing” (a brief time period in which an opportunity exists) and “ship is sinking (or sinking ship)” (a failed or floundering organization or entity).  Sinking windows is never a good thing.  A big thank you to Barry Eigen for seeing this one and sending it in!

We missed our door of opportunity

Posted: July 27, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: THINGS, TIME | Tags: , , , , , , | 3 Comments

At first blush, this one sounds right, but on further inspection, the speaker has apparently blended “window of opportunity” with “when one door closes, another door opens” (or maybe “open door policy”?).  The resulting malaphor certainly makes sense as a window and a door are both openings and both idioms convey similar meanings.    Less verbiage is always a good thing (you can quote me on that).