Mixed Metaphors 11

Insidious cross

Clegg loves mixed metaphors. Press are "animals round a shrinking waterhole" which are "struggling to keep their heads above water". (@AdamBienkov)

This is part and parcel of something which I think most people agree with, which is that as we fill in the black hole in the public finances we have also got to make sure that we do not put Humpty Dumpty back together again and make the same mistakes, that we rewire the British economy and make it fairer and give people more opportunities. (Nick Clegg, Sept 2012 You can't put the genie back in the bottle, the toothpaste back in the tube, or Humpty Dumpty back together again.)

The British “have a more insidious cross to bear”. Nick Clegg May 2010

James Miller from Experian said High Streets and town centres had "a careful balancing act to play". (BBC Online Sept 2012 Tricky balancing act to bring off?)

Seeking a Canute-like, static London is p*ssing in the wind. (Commenter on Hackney Hive. I think he means "We can't hold back change.")

notch up a milestone

Amazon: "This book is a minefield of information." (via @seatrout/Andrew Brown)

The socialism scourge creeps in slowly, cuts the ties that bind our nation together with moral relativism & atheism. (@Billy_Purcell ) (A creeping whip cuts ties...)

The BBC is dancing on the most peculiar set of pinheads. (BBC News channel October 24, 2012)

The Elephant and Castle became a cog in the transport network. (blackcablondon.wordpress.com You find cogs in clockwork. Networks are made of string.)

These tides may have been the trigger that kick-started life. (Maggie Aderin Pocock)

a large olive branch could still prevail (Times head Nov 26 2012 As a symbol of peace a small olive branch is just as meaningful. Perhaps they mean “major concessions could still work”?)

pass the puck for pass the buck (But that makes more sense. Nobody knows what the "buck" was that kept being passed around. Let's pass a hockey puck instead.)

The Arab Spring has shaken the kaleidoscope.
defuse the pressure (lighten, reduce. You defuse bombs.)

Portsmouth are a house of cards with just days to live. (Feb 11 10 Guardian)

This is music in which Gergiev has few peers today: he brings an epic, symphonic and dramatic integrity to its vast, multifaceted canvas. (The Sunday Times)

Fuelled by this flood tide of necessary junk (Jonathan Margolis Times 09 We still can't use water for fuel.)

We do not continue the treatment long enough for the full-blown glove-and-stocking picture to appear.

Although having children to rekindle a shaky marriage often has disastrous results... (prop up a shaky marriage, rekindle a slow-burning marriage)

Unleashing a slow relentless stranglehold on our planet… (Eden)

cloud-clapped kingdom for cloud-capped (whatsonstage.com A cloud-capped kingdom would also be nonsensical: the cloud-capped towers – as Shakespeare wrote – are so tall they’re wearing clouds as hats.)

They felt hemmed in by the shackles of society.

Britain "teetering on edge of dangerous housing bubble", top Treasury official warns (NHA Party‏/@NHAparty)
China is in the grip of a classic bubble. (Times Jan 2010)
a key driver of the bubble
at the height of the bubblea hefty burden of red tapeconfronted by a wall of bureaucracy and forced to wade through a mountain of red tape

More here, and links to the rest.