Mixed Metaphors and Garbled Clichés 14

Injecting a new lease of life

If this movie is a success, she could hitch her star to it! (Monumental Mysteries It’s “hitch your wagon to a star”.)

How tough this tightrope is that the EU has to walk. (BBC News A tough tightrope might be thicker, and easier to walk, than the normal kind. Walking a tightrope is always difficult – there’s no need to qualify it.)

Probe on Cliff widens (Sun headline Probes have to be long and narrow – think of a humming-bird’s beak, an anteater’s nose.)

We can’t be complacent and sit back on our laurels. (BBC Breakfast You rest on your laurels – the laurel crown given to an Olympic champion – when you think you don't have to compete any more.)

Very disappointing that sweatshop labour used to make those feminist T-shirts. But David Cameron didn't know that. He has no high ground. (@greg_jenner See “high moral ground” for “moral high ground”.)

The theft of half a dozen show-winning [guineapigs] from a breeder in Devon has cast a spotlight on the cutthroat underbelly of this seemingly genteel pursuit. (Telegraph)

The Conservative victory could inject a fresh lease of life into London's prime housing market. ITV (How are you going to get the document into the syringe?)

This whole world runs on 4 pillars 1-Religion 2-Money 3-Politics 4-Prostitution (Twitter Stands on pillars, runs on wheels.)

[Greeks should] support their country and swallow the bullet. (You bite on a bullet while your leg is being amputated without anaesthetic on an 18th century battlefield. The bullet is lead, so your teeth sink into it.)

"With all the debate brewing [...] the biggest bombshell turned out to be an explosive plot twist that no one saw coming." (NYT via Sam Leith ‏@questingvole)

And, today, in books received, "a hard-hitting rollercoaster of a debut thriller". (Sam Leith ‏@questingvole)

Londoners have to suffer views of this bloated carbuncle. (BBC Online The Walkie Talkie has won the Carbuncle Cup.)

My hand is still on the tiller, but only in a safety valve sort of way. (Lord Bath Sept 2015)

Is he the man to steer the ship over the road? (BBC sports commentator)

BBC says Brian Sewell had “currant-bun eyes”. (His face was the bun, his eyes were the currants.)

He wants to add another dinosaur to the collection, and cement his own name in the history books. (Canadian Dino Hunt)


She didn’t bat an eyebrow! (You bat your eyelashes.)

The bloom is off the rose. (The bloom is off the grape – it’s that dewy, velvety surface. A rose IS a bloom.)

From galleries to grass level projects.... (It’s “grass-roots” level – but why?)

Simmering tensions threaten to erupt. (If tensions could simmer they would threaten to boil over.)

nail your colours to the mask, tie your colours to the mask (It’s “mast”. The “colours” are your country’s flag; you run them up the mast and then nail them there so that nobody can make you lower them in defeat.)

forge a niche, forge a path (You carve, or carve out, a niche. You beat a path. You forge horseshoes, or cast-iron gates, or swords.)

denting her coffers by... (denting her profit)

beloved of the rose-rimmed spectacle wearers (Those spex are rose-tinted – giving everything an optimistic pink glow.)

It will suit him down to a tee! (Suit him to a tee, suit him down to the ground.)

More here, and links to the rest.

Euphemisms about Alcohol (in Quotes)

Here’s some straight talking about alcohol:
Their reckless bravado, bad judgment, sly conceit, aggression, dishonesty, viciousness all came from the bottle. They lurched into spying with all the character flaws of lifelong dipsos. (Richard Davenport-Hines in the Times on Guy Burgess and Kim Philby, September 2015)

And here are some euphemisms:
The antics of the Who’s Keith Moon have amused generations. (The Guardian, June 28 2006 We are not amused.)

His views on life were always a source of rich discussion. (Obit speak on Donovan Winter, alcoholic film director)

Supermodel Kate Moss was reportedly escorted off an easyJet flight from Turkey to London for “being disruptive”.

I always wonder what “fast-paced lives” are. Here’s a clue: “They say when you get older your Saturdays become slower paced.” (You don’t go out and get drunk.)

It’s troubling to read about Winehouse’s high jinks in recent months. Despite her enormous gifts, she has inner demons and struggles. (Letter to Time, Feb 2008)

Inevitably, Fergie adds: “I was not in my right place.” What she meant was, she’d been drinking. (Melanie McDonagh, The Evening Standard, 2 June 2010)

Innumerable though crime dramas are these days, it’s rare to see a true whodunit, one that deftly slots together a jigsaw of clues and motives, rather than relying on gore, car chases or “personal demons” (aka alcoholism). (The Times 2009 on whodunits and Miss Marple)

Boy George: he used to be a wild man, but now he’s a calmer chameleon. (Andrew Marr, February 16 2014)

You ought to be able to relax and enjoy your achievements. (Robert Crampton, paraphrase, March 24, 2012, explaining why he didn’t drink “much” when he was younger, just vodka in graveyards and stuff, but he says he’s kicked it now.)

More here, and links to the rest, and lots more in my book Boo & Hooray – see link on the right.