Profile avatar
metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social
Devoted to discovering, identifying, and using uncommonly high quality non-literal comparisons (metaphors, metonymies, similes, analogies, etc.). Send 'em my way! For much, much more go to metaphorsandbeyond dot com.
38 posts 22 followers 26 following
Regular Contributor
Conversation Starter
Posts 21 Comments 19

GOLDFISH MEMORY. Charlie Kirk noted this about Gavin Newsome's venture into podcasting: "He has a shark’s instincts and is hoping the voters will have a goldfish’s memory." [Somewhere Ted Lasso and Sam Obisanya are smiling.] Many thanks to Margaret Sullivan in The Guardian for the quotation.

submitted 9 hours ago • 0 comments

LCheney and AKinzinger used a comparison for a U.S. Representative who got something caught in the ringer: "it’s [fumbling through a public response] the verbal equivalent of checking your pocket for a winning lottery ticket only to realize you’re holding a grocery receipt." Oops! Bad awkward bluff!

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

Can we trust the stars (or a star) to understand the possibilities, or hazards, of AI to properly make decisions about data? Kevin De Liban, founder of TechTonic Justice, helps us out: wix.to/xvxIvan

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

The "reverse Jesus" reference could go in many different conceptual directions, but he focuses on storm creation contrasted with storm stopping. Likewise, he suggests that DJTrump "lumbers about causing chaos" before unleashing (sorry) his dog toy reference. Would your possible metaphors do better?

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

Andrew Eggers, in a Bulwark piece today ("The Man With No Plan") on DJTrump's tariffs manages to use or quote some very worn comparisons (e.g., flies in ointment, or rocket ships); but slips in these two relatively new metaphors: "Reverse Jesus" and "shaking the economy like a dog shakes a toy."

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

Or, as James Geary noted: “A simile is just a metaphor with the scaffolding still up.” #metaphor

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

Metaphors are as metaphors do (apologies to Forrest). Thanks @stardustbluepr.com! #metaphor

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

submitted 10 days ago • 1 comment

Stealth metaphors, in this case borrowed from seaborne practices, are among our most reliable shortcuts to meaning. Thanks @laurahelmuth.bsky.social! #metaphors

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

@thehighsign.bsky.social captures the alignment of entertainment, politics, and culture with this callback to the’50s for the film Mickey 17: “its allegory lines up with our reality like a cutout dress on a paper doll.” Perhaps not the alignment many sought when we still had the chance to vote.

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

Who knew that a washing machine could capture our current nutzoid leadership vacuum? Anyone who sees the repair guy, offer encouragement! Thanks @gregjenner.bsky.social! #analogies

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

Whoa! "White Smoke," "Vote," "rosary," combine to create a constellation of received meaning. Thanks @thehighsign.bsky.social! #metaphors

submitted 19 days ago • 1 comment

James Carville (pride of LSU) discovers that an Ali analogy may save the day for the Dems: "Half a century ago, Muhammad Ali cemented himself as the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time not by punching his way to glory but by mastering the art of the strategic retreat. Facing George Foreman," 1/2

submitted 20 days ago • 1 comment

Sticks, piñatas, and more party fun than humans ought to have. @avendarien.bsky.social Thanks for these potent stealth metaphors. #metaphors

submitted 21 days ago • 1 comment

Finally! An analogy that does not involved cars, car parts, or ill-suited "mechanics." Well done, elsteve314159! Thanks to Anna K. for the repost. If you find any other telling analogies concerning recent political/social/cultural trauma, please share! #analogies

submitted 21 days ago • 0 comments

Ah! The Yeti simile moves with stealth into the computer laboratory leaving only hairy traces of possibility. Thanks @thx.bsky.social! #similes

submitted 25 days ago • 0 comments

At times, visual metaphors serve to both arrest attention and to bring renewed life to over-used phrases. To wit, this visual metaphor by Carl Godfrey that accompanied a recent article in The Atlantic concerning feeling nostalgia for awful times:

submitted 27 days ago • 0 comments

I am still into #AI #metaphors; so for the new year, here is a new post about food metaphors blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/makingscienc...

submitted 73 days ago • 0 comments

Solid, solid entry recognizing how both stealth metaphors and other non-literal comparisons guide public and professional perception and action. Well done @bnerlich.bsky.social! #metaphors

submitted 27 days ago • 0 comments

Tru dat! Stealth metaphors are often so thick in our prose and analysis that we CAN bring them back to a level of metaphoric awareness, but it can take a bunch of work. Thanks @doncurrent.bsky.social ! #metaphors

submitted 27 days ago • 0 comments

How would you, in five words, express profound instability? Seth Godin uses this headline on his blog today: “Playing billiards on a boat." Not bad for a five-word headline! Instability won't be the only concept needing attention. Are you ready with your honed non-literal comparisons? Good! Enjoy!

submitted 27 days ago • 2 comments