Editor's Corner

Thursday is quiz day…but some of us are still easing back into things after the holidays. To make it easy on everyone today, we’ll skip the quiz, and instead, I have some information on mixed metaphors. From The Grammar Devotional, by Mignon Fogarty:

Wake Up and Smell the Coffee on the Wall: Mixed Metaphors

A metaphor is when you use something familiar to explain something else. Sports metaphors tend to be popular, and they’re also easy to mix. A sports metaphor is something like telling your employees It’s our turn at bat when it’s time to give a presentation. You’re comparing work to baseball. But be careful: if you said, “It’s our turn at bat, so let’s make a touchdown for the company,” you’d have mixed baseball and football metaphors, and your employees wouldn’t know whether to put themselves on a metaphorical baseball field or football field.

And now for some mixed metaphors that will hopefully give you a chuckle. These are from a collection at therussler.tripod.com:

· A rolling stone is worth two in the bush.

· Adam wasn’t always the brightest tool.

· Biting the hand that rocks the cradle…

· Can’t you read the handwriting in the wind?

· Dirty laundry is coming home to roost.

· He came out of it smelling like a bandit.

· He’s not the sharpest marble in the drawer.

· I could beat him with my eyes tied behind my back.

· I could see you itching at the bit.

· I’d walk a mile in a camel’s shoes to pass through the eye of a needle.

· I’ve got an ace up my nose.

· Ignorance is golden.

I hope you have a great day!

Kara Church

Senior Technical Editor