On WBST, the local NPR station, there was a promo for a story about Indiana’s latest adventure in Gerrymandering. A voice said, “Everybody knows it, but nobody wants to talk about it. It’s the elf in the room.” The guy surely meant “elephant,” but his mouth got in a hurry.
I thought, “Hey, thls could be the start of a new idiom, the elf in the room.” Especially in this time of abbreviated txt-spk. Who’s got time to thumb-type elephant?
I would use “The elf in the room” to mean focusing on a trivial(or non-existent) aspect in order to avoid the real issue(s).
No doubt with Christmas coming up he’s the elf on the shelf.
That one has legs. That’s a good idea. I’m stealing it.
The next time I’m trapped in one of those tedious and soporific meetings on office procedural demarcations, rather than trying to remember how to pronounce Batrachomyomachia, I will be able to use “That’s the elf in the room”.
Much obliged.
A recall a comment where a Mother tells her children the Elf on the Shelf is watching them. Later, one kid asks his Sister, “What is that?”
She responds, “An elf in the fireplace”.
I’ll use it to the grandwrex. It should be good for a laugh or 3.
I just e-mailed Public Radio’s A Way With Words show about The Elf In The Room. I said, “How many instagramming teens even know the old elephant phrase, anyway?”
@AskNott I did not know about this NPR program. This will be fun to listen to. Thank you!