Time changes things. Or at least, the lack of time changes things by rendering them trite, banal.<\/p>\n
Ever notice when someone utters something while taking off from a red light, or on the way out the door? In my case, in the rush, \u00c2\u00a0I sometimes fail to understand and respond with something all-purpose, like \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got it\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s correct\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I see what you mean\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Yes, I agree\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Good point.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
We can sometimes get away with these pat, unrehearsed replies, but what if the person who addressed us said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a little short. Can you lend me a hundred till payday?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d What if the person were to have uttered, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153All your former students call you \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcBlackboard Breath\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d? Would one of the pedestrian, clich\u00c3\u00a9d answers come to mind when nothing profound will surface for a question like \u00e2\u20ac\u0153May I borrow your car?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
I believe a lot of us spend time revising the past, especially when it comes to wishing we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d had the wherewithal to issue the perfect squelch. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure many of us replay the exchange in our minds until we have ourselves uttering an excellent rejoinder and maybe even convincing ourselves that we actually said it at the time. The super rejoinder that we employed revisionist history to produce often surfaces when one retells the event.<\/p>\n
Often I try desperately to come up with a rejoinder for all time, something so brilliant that the wittiest of people would remember it. Instead, a trite, stale reply comes out. We like to blame the lack of time for our clich\u00c3\u00a9dom. When I spoke an overused expression (or else put it in print), my friend, Optic contributing writer Lupita Gonzales, accused me of using a caliche. Now, any norte\u00c3\u00b1o knows that caliche is something used for road surfaces. A clich\u00c3\u00a9, as every English teacher knows, if what comes out of an exchange when someone simply doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have the time or the talent to be profound.<\/p>\n
Clich\u00c3\u00a9s often occur when people hear expressions without really knowing all the elements. The metaphor, a figure of speech that makes an impossible comparison (He was a lion in the fight), makes a statement that can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be true. So, a man isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a lion, nor is a lion a man). Metaphors get mixed a great deal.<\/p>\n
At a recent graduation, a member of the audience whispered something about the commencement speaker who regaled the crowd with tales of all of his accomplishments, ending with, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If you try really hard, you can be just like me!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
The member of the audience who made a justified comment, mixed a metaphor by saying, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just buttering his own nest.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d So we have a mixture of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153buttering someone up\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153feathering someone\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nest.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Through overuse, metaphors and other expressions we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve heard often constitute the caliches we find so common.<\/p>\n
So here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an exercise in mixing metaphors. Your job is to interpret what you believe the expression means and, if possible, identify the two or more expressions that became blended in the confused locution. The expressions will be imbedded in the following text. Please email your responses.<\/p>\n
Mixed metaphors are likely to come up during post-election parties. Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a mythical gathering that contains a few:<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n
A party guest says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Those darned Democrats will be in power until the cows come home to roost.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The host replies, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153So what you really mean is that when the rubber meets the road, you won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t bite the bullet; you just want to punt.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Another man joins in: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something to put in your pipe and chew over: Loose lips spoil the broth. When the GOP takes over, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be eating humble crow. I guess that shoots the wind out of your saddle.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Trying to mollify her host-husband, the wife chimes in: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Why don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t you men make up? Your opinions are diabolically opposed. And besides, one should not bite the hand that rocks the cradle.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d To which the host concludes, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been burning the midnight oil at both ends. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m tired and I want to bury the sack.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
But one of the guests, a late arriver, who missed out on the hors d\u00e2\u20ac\u2122oeuvres, insults the host with, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t eat that food with a 10-foot pole.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d And the hostess replies with, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153But you might, if you were at a wiener roast.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
We have allusions to bovines, automobiles, weapons, football, sleep, hatchets, smoking and chewing, broth and crow consumption and being tall in the saddle. But no meeting of minds.<\/p>\n
We have nothing settled. We come to realize that some people who attend parties after elections are one brick short of the whole nine yards. We also discover that a rolling stone is worth two in the bush and that the early bird gathers no moss, or as we like to say in New Mexico, no m\u00c3\u00a1s.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n
While it is true that the early bird gets the worm, it seems unfair that the second mouse gets the cheese.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Time changes things. Or at least, the lack of time changes things by rendering them trite, banal. Ever notice when someone utters something while taking off from a red light, or on the way out the door? In my case, in the rush, \u00c2\u00a0I sometimes fail to understand and respond with something all-purpose, like \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1009"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1010,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009\/revisions\/1010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}