As pet peeves go, this one is a favorite in that, while mixed metaphors are a sign of poor writing, they can often bring a smile. My all-time favorite is "No one hits a hole-in-one in their first time at bat."

The reason this has just now come to mind was a recent radio report dealing with students applying for college scholarships in which someone advised "You've got to stick out like a needle in a haystack." The "needle/haystack" imagry refers, of course, to being hidden and hard to find, just the opposite of what a scolarship-hunting student would want to be. And yet, in an unintended way, a student "sticking out like a needle in a haystack" would definitely be noticed under the right circumstances.

Any other examples of favorite mixed and/or misued metaphors?

To be or not to be : that is the question :
Whether 't is nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles.
And by opposing end them.

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Interesting you should mention this topic, CJ. In the last few days I'd seen a couple examples in the newpaper, and was going to run to the library to get the exact phrases.

The one i recall is the North Koreans characterizing the lasted proposal before them as cake pie in the sky. The other came from the Iraqis, I believe.

Hey, Shufitz, get out your Casey Stengal and Leo Durocher books. Between the two of them, there were myriad mixed metaphors.

(Brits, Asa is referring to star baseball figures of about 45 years ago. As am I.)

No have got, Asa. But I did find an on-line collection of "Yogi-isms" -- that is, the words of Yogi Berra (Lawrence Peter Berra).

quote:

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It ain't over 'til it's over.
Never answer an anonymous letter.
I usually take a two-hour nap from one to four.
It's deja vu all over again.
When you come to a fork in the road....take it.
You can observe a lot by watching."
When asked what time it was: "You mean now?"
If the world were perfect, it wouldn't be.
Yogi on the 1969 NY Mets: "overwhelming underdogs".
If the people don't want to come out to the ballpark, nobody's going to stop them.
The future ain't what it used to be.
It gets late early out here.

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Oh, Asa! Here are some Casey Stengel beauties!

"All right, everybody line up alphabetically according to your height."

"Well, I made up my mind, but I made it up both ways."

"There comes a time in every man's life and I've had plenty of them."

"That boy couldn't hit the ground if he fell out of an airplane."

But here are some better mixed metaphors:

"We are going to be shooting from the seat of our pants on this one."

"I think you might have hit the nail on the button."

"It was so cold last night I had to throw another blanket on the fire."

"Clearly we've opened a pandora's box of worms here."

"It's a walk in the cake."

"You'll get into hot water skating on thin ice!"

quote:

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The cure for mixed metaphors, I have always found, is for the patient to be obliged to draw a picture of the result.

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[Bernard Levin, In These Times (1986)

It's probably not original, though.

Creativity is not remembering your sources, eh?

"Ignorance is only skin deep."


Then I guess "Beauty is bliss."?

Maybe - "Beautiful ignorance is only deep skin blisters."

I'm still working on it...

And...the literature mixed metaphor that critics continue to ridicule in Joyce Kilmer's "Trees":
How can a tree press its mouth to the earth and at the same time lift its leafy arms to pray???

I watched a video today, "Remembering Chigago", which was a nostalgic trip back to the '20s, '30s and '40s. One woman told of an organ grinder and his monkey. The kids would toss pennies at the monkey and the monkey would scoop them up. She said the monkey was fast and would grab the pennies "quicker than Carter has pills".

The correct phrase is "more...than Carter's has pills".

A laxative was once marketed as Carter's Little Liver Pills. "Liver" was later dropped from the label, since the pills had nothing to do with the liver.

ad for Carter's Little Liver Pills (http://www.the-forum.com/advert/carter.htm)

more info. (http://www.fhradio.org/fm/archives/2002/2545%28FM%29.html)

Tinman

I got someone a bit flustered today, and her response was, "Well, it sure isn't rocket surgery, or is it brain science?" I couldn't help but snicker.

My Dad was watching a TV documentary about the history of warfare last night. Specifically this program was about the development of tanks from WWI to the present day.
As I was walking through the room I heard the narrator say

"...and this tank soon became Hitler's flagship."


Wouldn't it sink ?

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Yes, Bob, and it did!

In today's paper: "On the matter of justifying war against Iraq, President Bush has, to abuse a metaphor, been hiding his lamp under a bushel." Sorry if I am dense, but to what metaphor is he referring?

quote:

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Originally posted by Kalleh:

In today's paper: "On the matter of justifying war against Iraq, President Bush has, to abuse a metaphor, _been hiding his lamp under a bushel._" Sorry if I am dense, but to what metaphor is he referring?

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third quote down, here

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Comic in today's paper: Crankshaft

His daughter Pam tells Crankshaft, "You know, Dad...I think it's nice that you took your snowblower and helped clean other people's drives...But maybe you shouldn't be so compulsive about having to get every last flake of snow cleaned up!"

His reply, " I suppose...but a tiger can't change his spots!"

Thanks, Bob. Now I get it! The original is quite inspirational.

I often find mixed metaphors in the translations I do and have to straighten them out in the target language. One I remember is: 'He was drowning in the maze of bureaucracy.'

"The West Wing" is highly acclaimed as being one of the best-written shows on television yet a recent reviewing of a past episode revealed one character stating:

"OK, so we got our asses kicked in the first quarter. Now it's time to get up off the mat!"

Sports seem to lend themselves well to mixed metaphors.

Oh, and I asked before but never got an answer - Does "The West Wing" air on the other side of the Atlantic?

quote:

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Originally posted by C J Strolin:

Oh, and I asked before but never got an answer - Does "The West Wing" air on the other side of the Atlantic?

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Yes, it does. It's very popular although I haven't been following it myself.

We're quite lucky over here. While we do get some American dross (we produce a fair bit of our own as well) we also seem to get the pick of all the well made intellegent shows that you produce. And we don't have to suffer PBS.

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