# What's your favourite mangled metaphor? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 9, 2005, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-mangled-metaphor/311741 "2005-07-09T13:14:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lisa-go-Blind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Lisa-go-Blind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lisa-go-Blind)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2005, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-mangled-metaphor/311741/21 "2005-07-10T03:46:50Z")
I heard this one on _Unsolved Mysteries_ years ago, and it’s always stuck with me: “the light at the end of the rainbow.” ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2005, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-mangled-metaphor/311741/22 "2005-07-10T04:14:27Z")
Can I tell on my girlfriend? She’d gotten into the amusing habit of deliberately mangling “casting aspersions” as “casting asparagus” and then one day in a moment of distraction said she didn’t want to be guilty of “throwing asparagus”. ---
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2005, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-mangled-metaphor/311741/23 "2005-07-10T10:23:49Z")
From an old English paper that I read and helped a friend edit: “A virgin forest is a forest in which the hand of man has never set foot.” ---
**Author:** ![carlotta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@carlotta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carlotta)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2005, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-mangled-metaphor/311741/24 "2005-07-10T12:24:37Z")
In a newspaper article 6 or 7 years ago a CIA (FBI?) official was complaining that some mistake they’d made or been perceived to make hadn’t really been that bad, wasn’t the point, was not important “This red herring’s been hanging around our necks too long” ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2005, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-mangled-metaphor/311741/25 "2005-07-10T13:51:54Z")
Boxer Vinnie Paz on ESPN’s “Friday Night Fights” once used the phrase “He’s not the sharpest marble in the drawer.” ---
**Author:** ![athelas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@athelas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/athelas)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2005, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-mangled-metaphor/311741/26 "2005-07-10T17:29:48Z")
Well, I guess that’s the whole thing in a bombshell. ---
**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2005, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-mangled-metaphor/311741/27 "2005-07-10T18:29:48Z")
This thing came at me like a fish outta hell. This metaphor mixing is a walk in the cake. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2005, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-mangled-metaphor/311741/28 "2005-07-10T19:35:49Z")
I’m so tired, I could eat a horse. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2005, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-mangled-metaphor/311741/29 "2005-07-10T19:42:15Z")
From the Rachel Maddow show (Air America Radio): “We poke a sharp stick at the soft white underbelly of the right-wing scheme machine.” Mmm… soft white machine underbelly… ---
**Author:** ![CateAyo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@CateAyo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CateAyo)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2005, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-mangled-metaphor/311741/30 "2005-07-10T21:36:19Z")
> [@Casey1505](#): > > You can lead a gifthorse to water, but you can’t look into his mouth. or…“You can lead a horiticulture, but you can’t make her (him) think.” ---
**Author:** ![Nature\_s\_Call](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nature_s_call/32/19006_2.png) [@Nature\_s\_Call](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nature_s_Call)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2005, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-mangled-metaphor/311741/31 "2005-07-11T14:29:14Z")
> [@CateAyo](#): > > or…“You can lead a horiticulture, but you can’t make her (him) think.” Groan (I love it). Few more for the toilet paper roll: “I want to make sure we’re all on the same plate.” “Some people sail through life on a bed of roses like a knife slicing through butter.” “I’m shooting from the seat of my pants.” ---
**Author:** ![VunderBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/839c29/32.png) [@VunderBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VunderBob)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2005, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-mangled-metaphor/311741/32 "2005-07-11T15:00:53Z")
To tweak a couple of noses, I’ll say, “It’s not rocket surgery or brain science.” ---
**Author:** ![CateAyo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@CateAyo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CateAyo)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2005, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-mangled-metaphor/311741/33 "2005-07-11T18:29:45Z")
> [@CateAyo](#): > > or…“You can lead a horiticulture, but you can’t make her (him) think.” oops, I forgot to properly attribute that (paraphrased) to Dorothy Parker. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2005, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-mangled-metaphor/311741/34 "2005-07-11T20:34:36Z")
“I made it by the skin off my neck” 😕😕 ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2005, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-mangled-metaphor/311741/35 "2005-07-11T20:56:17Z")
My wife once told me that I had been “snoring like a light”. 🙂 I love her more than anything, but sometimes she’s not the sharpest bulb in the drawer… ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2005, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-mangled-metaphor/311741/36 "2005-07-11T21:05:41Z")
If you need to hang on to something in order to cover your ass, you want it “preserved for posterior”. ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2005, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-mangled-metaphor/311741/37 "2005-07-11T21:07:41Z")
That is a whole new can of fish. Not the brightest bulb in the greenhouse. ---
**Author:** ![Race\_Bannon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Race\_Bannon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Race_Bannon)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2005, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-mangled-metaphor/311741/38 "2005-07-11T21:18:07Z")
Let’s cut some new water. That was easy as falling off a piece of cake. ---
**Author:** ![Grits\_and\_Hard\_Toast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Grits\_and\_Hard\_Toast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grits_and_Hard_Toast)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2005, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-mangled-metaphor/311741/39 "2005-07-11T21:57:02Z")
> [@Nature's Call](#): > > When preparing ourselves for a difficult challenge I offered the opinion to my team, “We’ve got to grab the bull by the horns and wade through this thing.” > > Mercifully no one called me on the mixed metaphor, but I’ve never forgiven myself. > > " That is similar to the time I told my co workers that, " I might go to Keeneland on Saturday if I get a crazy rabbit." They just stared at me, I knew something wasn’t quite right. “If I get a nutty bunny?” Nope, they just look confused. Then one of them has an idea. "OMG I think she means “wild hare.” They then had to explain to me it was wild hair, short for wild hair up your ass. I had no idea. And my co workers tell me the phrase “crazy rabbit” instead of “wild hair” lives on, long after I have stopped working there. ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2005, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-mangled-metaphor/311741/40 "2005-07-11T22:44:11Z")
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