Just curious. I’m crazy busy at work, and yet another person asked about the status of one of the many projects I’m juggling (yes, juggling, I should have probably gone with that, everybody knows that metaphor).
So I said, be patient, I have a lot of plates spinning right now. To which they replied that’s cool, keep me posted (not wtf are you talking about?). But then I wondered, am I showing my age? I was referring to an old vaudeville-type act, which I think I was most familiar with from the Ed Sullivan show when I was around 5, where a guy would spin ordinary ceramic dinner plates on long sticks. As he added more and more plates he would have to go back to the plates that were losing momentum and give them a re-spin. It got pretty hectic. I was pretty captivated by it as a 5 year old. But I don’t think it’s an act that you see much these days.
So, if someone said, I have a lot of plates spinning right now, would you get the reference?
I’ve generally heard it (and used it) as keeping a lot of plates spinning. I’m a millennial and I had no trouble understanding the meaning (and the visual it conveyed) the first time I heard it.
Cool, good to hear from a millennial on the subject! I was a bit concerned I was letting a ‘grandpa saying’ slip through at work. Not that my workplace is ageist at all really, but I do work in tech.
Thinking about it, have there been any plate spinners on shows like America’s Got Talent? It’s the kind of variety act that you’d think would show up occasionally if there were still lots of them around.
And to revisit Tabco’s reply, this is a good distinction-- keeping a lot of plates spinning as opposed to having a lot of plates spinning. The active mode over the passive mode. Always good for biz communications.
I’m familiar with the act, but not used as a saying like that. Though, if someone used it, I don’t think I’d even give it a second thought. My mind would translate it to “I’ve got a lot of balls in the air right now”.
Wow, that video is crazy, and goes way beyond what I remember from those old Ed Sullivan segments. I wish it would have shown how they got up to speed with all those plates at the start.
I remember watching the Ed Sullivan Show, and the plate spinning acts, one of my favorites. It seems silly and pointless, yet you are soon rooting for the spinner to keep all 25 plates going at once. I’ve also seen comedy acts using spinning plates that usually result in plates crashing all around the comedian.
Here’s Eric Brinn doing it on the Sullivan Show in glorious black and white. As a boomer, the reference, however you said it, would not be lost on me.
Personally, I think it is a much better metaphor than juggling. Just look at your plate spinner in action - running from one “problem” plate to another. It’s not some smooth flow of action like juggling, more like seeking out the squeaky wheel that needs urgent attention.
That is an awesome video, and I like the long version of the mid century modern table he’s spinning the plates on. I built a coffee table kind of similar to that, but much less wide. I cut a kidney shape for the table top, routed out a nice bevel around the perimeter, and bought 4 tapered legs and angled steel connectors to finish it. Still have it.
But, i seem to have a memory of an act from the Ed Sulliven show, still in glorious black and white, but with spinning sticks from the floor to over the performer’s head, and flatter plates than that video. But that was a great performance, and I’m glad the video showed how the guy gracefully brought it all to a stop.
That’s what I thought of also. The act was on a lot of TV variety shows in the 60s. It seems a little exciting the first time you see it, can he get them all spinning before a plate comes crashing down? Well he did it every time I saw it for years and it turned boring. I do have a dim memory of one comedy version with the juggler managing to account for a bothersome stooge on top of keeping the plates spinning, until the end when the juggler accidentally knocks it all over.
Those look more like bowls than plates to me, but you get the idea. You mentioned America’s Got Talent. Well, here’s a guy from Britain’s Got Talent who not only spins plates but juggles knives at the same time. Jump to 2:38 for the spinning plates part.
That guy makes my job seem easy, gotta say. I like how Simon Cowell’s expressions go from amused to bemused.
You’re both more or less right, but I get @don_t_ask 's point that juggling is one continuous action of “everything works or else it doesn’t work” whereas plate spinning is trying to keep several disparate things in motion.
I know what it means; I’ve never actually heard it used. I would never say such a thing, more like something “I’ve got a lot of shit on my plate” or “I’ve got a lot of irons in the fire” (depending on the nuance.)
