A slow motion train wreck metaphor
Gunga Din
again.
I am preparing an advocacy action for the Asylum and Immigration Appeals
Tribunal (not for an asylum seeker because I don't do asylum but rather for
an advocacy on representation), and I need to press the point that our
immigration systems are a slow motion train wreck. That's not the main
point I want to make, but it leads up to the main point in much the same way
that Mozart used reed instruments.
Thing is, the slow motion train wreck is an overworked metaphor. It returns
slightly less than a million hits. While it describes the situation
perfectly, it lacks *PUNCH*. I quite it and regret not having thought it up
myself.
"House of cards" does not convey same meaning and is yet further overworked.
"Ship of fools" loses my meaning and will insult rather than advocate.
"Slow motion train wreck" is perfect. Does anybody know of a metaphor with
the same meaning, but has a fresh, snappy lilt to it?
Most gratefully,
Gunga
tinwhistler
Gunga Din wrote:
> "Slow motion train wreck" is perfect. Does anybody know of a metaphor with
> the same meaning, but has a fresh, snappy lilt to it?
Our immigration systems are an accident unfolding in slo-mo, like a
monkey with arthritis at a Mixmaster making lemon Jell-O out of instant
asphalt.
Gunga Din
"tinwhistler" <ozzie...@post.harvard.edu> wrote in message
news:1153089344....@m79g2000cwm.googlegroups.com...
This has possibilities and I'm grateful for your prompt reply!
The Jello bit needs a right-pondian twitch. The lemon reference can be
persistent as a leitmotif. Mixmaster is pondial. But otherwise, there's
possibilities. TA!
Father Ignatius
"Gunga Din" <none> wrote in message
news:NPidnZw1-PQlJifZ...@giganews.com...
> I am preparing an advocacy action for the Asylum and Immigration Appeals
> Tribunal (not for an asylum seeker because I don't do asylum but rather
> for an advocacy on representation), and I need to press the point that our
> immigration systems are a slow motion train wreck.
"slow-motion train-wreck" IMO.
Drifting immediately off-topic, as is traditional, I remark that I've just
finished re-reading _The Complete "Yes, Minister"_ and _The Complete "Yes,
Prime Minister"_, and surmise that somewhere in there is a very adept Sir
Humphrey efficiently making sure this is so.
> "Slow motion train wreck" is perfect. Does anybody know of a metaphor
> with the same meaning, but has a fresh, snappy lilt to it?
No, but:
{freeze-frame|glacier-pace|molasses-slow} {disaster|fiasco}
treacle in winter
proceeds with mesmeric slowness to {inevitable|pre-ordained|fated}
catastrophe
Salvatore Volatile
>
> "tinwhistler" <ozzie...@post.harvard.edu> wrote in message
> news:1153089344....@m79g2000cwm.googlegroups.com...
>>
>> Gunga Din wrote:
>>
>>> "Slow motion train wreck" is perfect. Does anybody know of a metaphor
>>> with
>>> the same meaning, but has a fresh, snappy lilt to it?
>>
>> Our immigration systems are an accident unfolding in slo-mo, like a
>> monkey with arthritis at a Mixmaster making lemon Jell-O out of instant
>> asphalt.
>>
>
> This has possibilities and I'm grateful for your prompt reply!
>
> The Jello bit needs a right-pondian twitch.
I think in BrE you'd have to say: "... making lemon jelly out of instant
macadam", no?
--
Salvatore Volatile
JF
<none@?.?.invalid> writes
>"Slow motion train wreck" is perfect. Does anybody know of a metaphor with
>the same meaning, but has a fresh, snappy lilt to it?
Slow-motion train crash. Much more punch.
Tony Cooper
wrote:
Melting like an erection at the sound of "Where is this relationship
going?"
--
Tony Cooper
Orlando, FL
Frank ess
... melting into a puddle of brown sugar, like the Wicked Witch of the
East
R H Draney
Then I suppose "like Fibber McGee's closet" is right out....r
--
It's the crack on the wall and the stain on the cup that gets to you
in the very end...every cat has its fall when it runs out of luck,
so you can do with a touch of zen...cause when you're screwed,
you're screwed...and when it's blue, it's blue.
Derek Turner
> You helped me earlier with "materterine". And I have the brass to ask once
> again.
>
The OP asked for metaphors and you offer him similes?
Don Phillipson
news:NPidnZw1-PQlJifZ...@giganews.com...
> . . . the slow motion train wreck is an overworked metaphor. It returns
> slightly less than a million hits. While it describes the situation
> perfectly, it lacks *PUNCH*. . . .
> "Slow motion train wreck" is perfect. Does anybody know of a metaphor
with
> the same meaning, but has a fresh, snappy lilt to it?
Your problem may be that slow motion train wreck
is a mixed metaphor, combining two ideas.
Train wreck is an image of total ruin;
Slow motion presents any process with increased
intensity (the way TV replays sports events in slow
motion, the way Bonnie and Clyde died on film etc.)
There may be a single alternative metaphor that
expresses total ruin with increased intensity; but
I cannot suggest any; and doubt that any such
figure of speech will strengthen your case at law.
You may encounter a judge who believes "the
facts speak for themselves," or ought to.
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)
Oleg Lego
>"Gunga Din" <none> wrote in message
>news:NPidnZw1-PQlJifZ...@giganews.com...
>
>> . . . the slow motion train wreck is an overworked metaphor. It returns
>> slightly less than a million hits. While it describes the situation
>> perfectly, it lacks *PUNCH*. . . .
>> "Slow motion train wreck" is perfect. Does anybody know of a metaphor
>with
>> the same meaning, but has a fresh, snappy lilt to it?
>
>Your problem may be that slow motion train wreck
>is a mixed metaphor, combining two ideas.
>Train wreck is an image of total ruin;
>Slow motion presents any process with increased
>intensity (the way TV replays sports events in slow
>motion, the way Bonnie and Clyde died on film etc.)
I wouldn't have thought about intensity with regard to "slow motion"
in this phrase. I thought of it as more like something heading toward
total ruin, but taking a long time to get there. Sort of like our
vaunted Canuckistani Health Care System.
Robert Bannister
> The Don Phillipson entity posted thusly:
>
>
>>"Gunga Din" <none> wrote in message
>>news:NPidnZw1-PQlJifZ...@giganews.com...
>>
>>
>>>. . . the slow motion train wreck is an overworked metaphor. It returns
>>>slightly less than a million hits. While it describes the situation
>>>perfectly, it lacks *PUNCH*. . . .
>>>"Slow motion train wreck" is perfect. Does anybody know of a metaphor
>>
>>with
>>
>>>the same meaning, but has a fresh, snappy lilt to it?
>>
>>Your problem may be that slow motion train wreck
>>is a mixed metaphor, combining two ideas.
>>Train wreck is an image of total ruin;
>>Slow motion presents any process with increased
>>intensity (the way TV replays sports events in slow
>>motion, the way Bonnie and Clyde died on film etc.)
>
>
> I wouldn't have thought about intensity with regard to "slow motion"
> in this phrase. I thought of it as more like something heading toward
> total ruin, but taking a long time to get there. Sort of like our
> vaunted Canuckistani Health Care System.
Perhaps frame-by-frame plane crash.
--
Rob Bannister
UC
Think up your own damned metaphor.
Father Ignatius
"UC" <uraniumcommi...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1153239861.3...@i42g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
Troll O Meter
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UC
JF wrote:
> X-No-Archive: yes
>
> In message <1153239866.9...@35g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>, UC
> <uraniumcommi...@yahoo.com> writes
>
> >Think up your own damned metaphor.
>
> remarkably things about P G Wodehouse was that he could come up with an
> original simile on every other page.
Like a pickled walrus....
Mike Lyle
UC wrote:
> Gunga Din wrote:
[...]
> > "Slow motion train wreck" is perfect. Does anybody know of a metaphor with
> > the same meaning, but has a fresh, snappy lilt to it?
>
Several of us are privileged to know GD personally, however slightly. I
don't know who on earth you may be; but your damned gratuitous rudeness
suggests your acquaintance would probably be something less than a
privilege.
UC
Curb your enthusiasm...
Mike Lyle
Gunga Din wrote:
[...]
> "House of cards" does not convey same meaning and is yet further overworked.
> "Ship of fools" loses my meaning and will insult rather than advocate.
>
> "Slow motion train wreck" is perfect. Does anybody know of a metaphor with
> the same meaning, but has a fresh, snappy lilt to it?
With all the grace and agility of a Galapagos tortoise noticing, too
late, a dog turd in its path?
A supertanker heading for the Fastnet Rock?
A supertanker heading for an ammunition ship?
"Says Tweed tae Till:
'What gars ye rin sae still?'
Says Till tae Tweed:
'Though ye rin with speed
And I rin slaw
For ae mon that ye droon,
I droon twa.'"
--
Mike.
Gunga Din
news:b6xEp2cx...@marage.demon.co.uk...
> X-No-Archive: yes
>
> In message <1153239866.9...@35g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>, UC
> <uraniumcommi...@yahoo.com> writes
>
>
> remarkably things about P G Wodehouse was that he could come up with an
> original simile on every other page.
>
Seein's how Follet's in, how about "...an asteroid belt who's centre of
gravity overdosed on Prozac..."?
Mike Lyle
JF wrote:
> X-No-Archive: yes
>
> In message <1153244581....@s13g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>, Mike
> Lyle <mike_l...@yahoo.co.uk> writes
> outraged on behalf of others.
No pretence: I like the bloke, and he's worth a newsroom full of
reporters from planet Uranus, however intriguingly addled their cerebra
may seem to the neurologist. And that was merely a raised eyebrow: I'm
not sure this exhibit has what it takes to stir outrage.
--
Mike.
R H Draney
I'm really going to miss Dan Rather next election night....r
Peter Moylan
> "Slow motion train wreck" is perfect. Does anybody know of a metaphor with
> the same meaning, but has a fresh, snappy lilt to it?
I suppose "mechanical clusterfuck" is out of the question.
--
Peter Moylan http://www.pmoylan.org
Please note the changed e-mail and web addresses. The domain
eepjm.newcastle.edu.au no longer exists, and I can no longer
reliably receive mail at my newcastle.edu.au addresses.
The optusnet address still has about 2 months of life left.
Gunga Din
news:44c8bd9f$0$22364$afc3...@news.optusnet.com.au...
> Gunga Din wrote:
>
>> "Slow motion train wreck" is perfect. Does anybody know of a metaphor
>> with the same meaning, but has a fresh, snappy lilt to it?
>
> I suppose "mechanical clusterfuck" is out of the question.
>
Indeed.
Read the press reports. Home Secretary Reid had the cane today, not because
he was wrong - in fact he was right. I actually admire the chap. But
evincing metaphors and persuasive rhetoric he lacked, and he had the cane
for it.
And it wasn't the slow motion train wreck metaphor that did it - that was
weary and time-worn, but rather the wading-in-deep-mud nightmare... :)
Read the transcript and take pride that it was inspiration taken here in
these very aue chambers that wrought this outcome. I wasn't lead, in fact
way back presenting authorities. Glad to be in it and win it.
HAR!
I'll be grinning for a week... :) And I'm on the other side. I just love
evincing and persuasive rhetoric and those emotionally compelling metaphors!
Tiddly pip!!
Gunga "bring on the next one" Din
Vinny Burgoo
>Read the press reports. Home Secretary Reid had the cane today, not because
>he was wrong - in fact he was right. I actually admire the chap. But
>evincing metaphors and persuasive rhetoric he lacked, and he had the cane
>for it.
The Afghani hijackers were members of a group called Young Intellectuals
of Afghanistan. Reid should have pointed out that the notion of a
self-proclaimed intellectual is so alien to the British way of life that
the Young Intellectuals of Afghanistan will be in danger for as long as
they remain in the country. Case closed. They'd have been sent to
France, the home of the self-proclaimed intellectual, and everyone would
have been happy.
--
V