Mixed Metaphors 15

Obviously Sadiq was going to win once all the lefty snowflakes started foaming at the mouth and mass sharing the poll. (Danny Corbett @redpilldanny)

In the pressure cooker of Europe, things are on a knife edge. (Katie Hopkins)

This comment sowed the seeds of the bitter chip I was developing on my shoulder. (auntiebellum.org)

A village long gone, but its echoes remain standing. (Caption on a picture of a bell tower in a lake – all that remains of a drowned village.)

Tricky waters requiring a careful tread. 

These "mobilizing passions" form the emotional lava that set fascism's foundations.

Fave mixed metaphor so far this morning - a woman describing Trump as coming across like 'A bull in a china closet'. (Mister Neil Kulkarni ‏@KaptainKulk)

Mrs May will have to crawl back into the negotiating table on bended knee!

Simmering tensions among the explorers reached breaking point. (Times)

The Clacton swamp has been drained without a shot being fired! (Arron Banks)

Core planks of the Brexit strategy (government speak)

GARBLED CLICHES
The proof is in the pudding. It’s “the proof of the pudding is in the eating” – you don’t know what it’s like until you’ve eaten a bit.

Over-egging the case Overstating the case; over-egging the pudding.

This gives the team a razor-tight window – they have a razor-thin window of seven hours... (Crossrail voiceover) Razors are sharp, windows are large or small.

All this work has had to happen in a very short window. Atlas Obscura

Success will require a step increase in the current rate of sales. (Job ad) It's "step change". Perhaps they meant "steep increase".

Prick-neat kitchens, shining like colour supplement ads, more often appeared lower down that middle-class scale. (The Great Indoors: At home in the modern British house by Ben Highmore) Does he mean “neat as a new pin”?

Fattening the coffers of consultants (You fill coffers, fatten pigs. Coffers are large wooden chests – when they’re full, you get a new one. You might fatten your wallet by filling it with notes.)

Do we sit on our laurels or move to the next stage? (Jeremy Hunt) The cliché is “rest on your laurels”, ie relax now that you have won a laurel crown in the Ancient Greek Olympic games, or other sporting contest.

Untangle the Gordian knot (The whole point about the Gordian knot was that you couldn’t untie it – the only way to loose it was to cheat and cut it – which some hero did.)

Stoke divisions You can create or cause divisions. You can stoke a fire, or stoke anger or fury. But you can’t stoke a division. Try “widen”.

Tone-deaf Labour is plumbing to new depths (Telegraph headline Dec 2016) You plumb depths with a plumb line (with a weight made of lead or plumbum); you may plummet to new depths as you fall down a crevasse.)

More here, and links to the rest.