Too-Appropriate Metaphors Part Five

It’s not just red squirrels you see ferreting around in the woods. (Michaela Strachan)

The Philosopher’s Stone is the intellectuals’ Holy Grail. (Forbidden History)

Seals have their babies in giant rookeries in New Mexico. (Nigel Marven)

Houses can’t be set in stone, of course. (NYT Oct 2013)

This is the unsung story of British embroidery. (Fabric of Britain)

This trench is a last-ditch attempt… (Tony Robinson, Time Team)

California wildfires “erupted” in mid-August.

Pitt-Rivers’ ground-breaking approach to archaeology… (BBC4 Aug 2013)

This tarantula is about to go ape. (Rhys Jones’s Wildlife Patrol)

Kestrels are eagle-eyed. (Rhys Jones’s Wildlife Patrol)

Chris Froome condemns cycling fan for throwing urine at Mark Cavendish: "It leaves a nasty taste in the mouth." (July 11 2013 via Nick Robinson)

Avoid writing that shale gas would “fuel” the economy.

Archaeologist Mick Aston “did very good work on original British towns which is still being built on.” (Francis Pryor, quoted in the Mirror 2013)

Horses were routinely plunged into Hackney Marshes and forced to doggy paddle across. (Telegraph Aug 2012)

Where woods shelter half-ton leviathans. (Wild Russia, showing us a bear)

This tinny hammered copper… (Bargain Hunt)

The new steamships ran like well-oiled machines. (Coast) They were well-oiled machines. I can see you mean “the steamship service ran like a well-oiled machine” but it’s too close to “steamship”.

Next week is Immunization Awareness Week - help it go viral. (@BadScienceWatch)

A PR recently called and said they "wanted to touch base with me voice to voice, so to speak" (Hamish Thompson ‏@Suburbman)

"The Dangerous Dogs Act is literally a dog's breakfast," Richard Madeley just said on the news. Jennie Bond added, "The law is an ass." (Matthew Sweet ‏@DrMatthewSweet )

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