Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
A metaphor too far
Who was it who used to publish whiffies — examples of malodorously bad writing? I can’t recall. They were hilarious, those whiffies. Now if you google “whiffies” you get some sort of fried pie maker.
The spoken word won’t qualify as a whiffy, of course, since criminal English escapes all of our lips on a daily basis. But . . . Still . . . There are cases so heinous that they cannot be allowed to pass unnoticed.
On NPR yesterday, from a piece on Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan’s attitude toward military recruitment on the Harvard campus during her tenure as dean, here’s an unnamed person from the Student Veterans Association describing the cold response Kagan received from them when she came to talk:
“It was a tough room,” said one of those present. “She got more pushback than she was used to.”
“I was shocked that the request was made. The vast majority of us thought ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ was stupid,” the person continued. “But … getting us to carry her water on military recruitment through the back door was a bridge too far . . .”
Boo-yah!
D.
The New Yorker has a little feature called Block That Metaphor with extracts from newspapers throughout the U.S.
I admit to loving metaphors (not so much the sport ones, though), but they are less effective in an environment where English is not most people’s native language. It is fun to find out which metaphors have foreign relations. C’est bonnet blanc et blanc bonnet = It’s hat white and white hat. Clear, non? Six of one and half dozen of the other. C’est la goutte d’eau qui fait deborder le vase = It’s the drop of water that overflows the jug. Chantez a l’ane, il vous fera des pets = Sing to a donkey, he will fart to you. Douce parole n’ecorche pas lange = Soft words don’t scratch the tongue. OK, enough of French.
I also get to hear a lot of Russian sayings. “You can’t fart wider than your ass.” “If you are afraid of the wolves, don’t go to the woods.” “Work is not a wolf. It won’t run off into the forest.” “Still waters are inhabited by devils.” “No one goes to Tula with his own samovar.” and the legendary “Trust, but verify”
I think I can figure out most of those . . . but “No one goes to Tula with his own samovar” went right over my head.
Is “Trust, but verify” a metaphor?