There are people falling behind the crack Jeannie Blaylock, a TV news anchor in Jacksonville, Fl, uttered this one when she was discussing the financial strain of COVID. It is a congruent conflation of people “falling through the cracks” and “falling behind”, both meaning those who are not helped by the system which is supposed to deal with them. “Falling” is the common word here, and is the cause of the mashup. A tip of the crack to Lou Pugliese who heard this gem.

This flips the tables This was spotted in a Washington Post Op-Ed piece by Greg Sargent, discussing Biden’s plan to produce more jobs in the United States. Here’s the excerpt: Biden, by contrast, will do what Trump didn’t: Use active, interventionist government to actually create jobs and rebuild U.S. manufacturing capacity. While there’s no question the left deserves credit in pushing Biden in this direction, his broader agenda has proved unexpectedly progressive. “This flips the tables,” Jared Bernstein, a progressive economist and outside adviser to the Biden campaign, told me. “It doesn’t just block incentives to send jobs overseas; it creates new ones to create jobs here.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/09/09/trump-has-one-last-remaining-lifeline-biden-is-moving-sever-it/ This is a congruent conflation of “turns the tables” and “flips the script”, both meaning to reverse or change something dramatically. If Sargent had really meant to flip tables, he might have been tempted to use one of many emojis expressing this – see https://cutekaomoji.com/misc/table-flipping/ A flip of the hat to Mike Kovacs for spotting this perfectly formed congruent conflation. (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

I am slipping on my words This tongue-tied malaphor should be the slogan for all malaphors. It is a mashup of “tripping over (one’s) words” (speak unclearly) and “slip of the tongue” (an error in speaking). “Stumble over (one’s) words” might also be in the mix. Using the tongue to speak was clearly on the speaker’s mind when she confused slip and trip. A big thank you to Doree Simon who uttered and sent in this mixup.

She folded like a deck of cards Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, former senior adviser to Melania Trump, was interviewed by Rachel Maddow. Wolcoff was describing how Melania turned her back on her when the White House decided to throw Wolkoff under the bus for inaugurationgate: Stephanie Winston Wolkoff told US journalist Rachel Maddow she had recorded her former friend to gain material for the book, but only once it was clear that Melania was not going to come to her aid in an investigation. “If she was my friend that would be horrible, but Melania and the White House had accused me of criminal activity, had publicly shamed and fired me, and made me their scapegoat,” Ms Winston Wolkoff said. “At that moment in time, that’s when I pressed record. At that moment she was no longer my friend and she was willing to let them take me down and she told me herself this is the way it has to be. “That’s not how you treat a friend so I was going to do anything in my power to make sure that I was protected.” “She turned her back, she folded like a deck of cards and I was shocked when she did it.” https://www.dailyexaminer.com.au/news/melania-folded-like-a-deck-of-cards/4091574/ This is a congruent conflation of “fold like a cheap suitcase” and “fall like a house of cards”, both meaning to collapse easily or a plan that is destined to fail. “Fold like a card table” may also be in the mix, as it doesn’t have the word “cheap” in it. This is similar to a prior posting uttered by Stormy Daniels’ lawyer, Michael Avenetti – “folded like a cheap deck of cards”. https://malaphors.com/2018/04/10/hes-going-to-fold-like-a-cheap-deck-of-cards/ Props to Frank King and Mike Kovacs, two giants in the malaphor spotting field.

Michigan gave us Motang This terrific word blend was uttered by our Malaphorer-in-Chief at a rally in Michigan: During his rally in Freeland, Michigan, Trump told the packed and largely maskless crowd that “Michigan gave us Motang,” then added “Gave us Motown, gave us the Mustang.” You can hear the clip here: https://www.mediaite.com/news/watch-trump-tells-crowd-michigan-gave-us-motang-and-twitter-has-a-field-day/ It is of course a mashup of Motown and Mustang, two things that Trump said Michigan gave us. Word blends are a subset of malaphors. They are unconscious blends of words to make an unintentional new word. The word sounds or looks correct at first blush, but then on closer examination is incorrect. Examples on my website are “Buckminster Palace” (Buckingham and Westminster, and/or possibly Buckminster Fuller) and “split-minute decision” (split second and last minute). Word nerds might say these are portmanteaus, but a portmanteau is a combination of two (or more) words or morphemes, and their definitions, into one new word. A big thank you to Bruce Ryan for hearing this one and sending it in immediately. It is actually getting quite a buzz on Twitter.

So to say This subtle little malaphor was found in a Washington Post article: “This is going to force Joe Biden to come out of the basement, so to say,” said Robert Graham, a former Arizona Republican Party chairman. “People don’t just want ‘content.’ They want to see him out there.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden-to-resume-in-person-campaigning-as-race-with-trump-kicks-into-gear/2020/08/29/c2257ab4-e94a-11ea-970a-64c73a1c2392_story.html It is a congruent conflation of “so to speak” and “you might say”, both meaning to be said a certain way, even though the words are not exactly accurate. Kudos to Bruce Ryan for spotting this one.

tighten the gap Chris Hayes said this one on his MSNBC show on 9/1. discussing the Presidential race. “It is possible for Donald Trump to tighten the gap…” This is a congruent conflation of “narrow the gap” and “tighten the race”, both meaning to make closer. A tip of the toque to Frank King for hearing this subtle one.

We’re really rounding the turn Another trumpafor. Trump uttered this one at a recent news conference, discussing the coronavirus. Here is the text: “We’re really rounding the turn. The vaccines are coming. The therapeutics have already come but they’re continuing to come,” Trump said of the coronavirus. https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/515223-trump-maintains-us-rounding-the-turn-on-coronavirus This is a congruent conflation of “rounding the corner”, “turning the corner”, and “rounding the bend”, all meaning to begin to find success after a troubling period. A big thanks to Fred Martin and Sam Edelmann for both hearing this one.

Trump has his fingers in all those pots This one was uttered by Joy Reid on her MSNBC show. It is a conflation of “finger in every pie” (involvement in several different activities) and “chicken in every pot” ( a symbol of wealth and prosperity). The latter phrase came from a newspaper advertisement by the Republican National Committee during Herbert Hoover’s 1928 presidential campaign. The ad pointed out that the preceding administrations of presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge had “put the proverbial ‘chicken in every pot.’ And a car in every backyard, to boot.” Although credited with the statement, Hoover never promised “a chicken in every pot.” In a similar vein, King Henry IV of France vowed on his coronation in 1589 that “if God grants me the usual length of life, I hope to make France so prosperous that every peasant will have a chicken in his pot on Sunday.” His assassination in 1610 at age fifty-seven stymied such a plan. A big thanks to Frank King for hearing this one and sending it in!