Recently in the Metaphors Category

I don't think I had ever heard of the Island of Misfit Toys before a couple of months ago, when it figured prominently in an anti-iPhone Verizon commercial.

Which would normally be more a matter of my lack of pop-culture knowledge than something relevant to words or language. Except that the phrase seems to be suddenly becoming a popular metaphor.

I saw it in two different news stories during one week a couple weeks ago. I didn't record the first, but the second is a New York Times article, "The Fall and Rise of Media," which says (about job loss in traditional media) "That carnage has left behind an island of misfit toys."

It's possible this has always been used as a metaphor, ever since the Rudolph TV special was broadcast in 1964, and I just didn't notice it until I had a referent to pin it to. But I see that a direct-to-video movie, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Island of Misfit Toys, was released in 2001, and has been aired annually on ABC since December of 2006, so I'm speculating that that's led to increased awareness of the Island. I don't have time to track the phrase further, but I suspect use of the metaphor has gone way up in the past three years.

I saw a billboard advertising the new Droid cell phone yesterday. It had a hard-edged and manly sort of high-tech industrial look to it, and it said:

A BARE-KNUCKLED BUCKET OF DOES.

Now, the Droid ad campaign has centered around the idea that there's lots of stuff that the iPhone doesn't do, but that "Droid Does."

So the advertisers can perhaps be forgiven for assuming that everyone would see the word "DOES" as a verb and pronounce it like "duzz."

But for just a moment, as I glanced at the billboard, I saw the word "DOES" as a plural noun, and pronounced it like "doze."

And I wondered: a bare-knuckled bucket full of female deer? Huh?

Benedict Carey of the New York Times sure does like using metaphors to describe science stuff.

At least, that's the conclusion I draw from reading his article Brain Researchers Open Door to Editing Memory. It's an interesting article on an interesting topic, but I got a little distracted by the blend of metaphors for brain activity.

The article's main metaphor is introduced here:

[...] brain cells activated by an experience keep one another on biological speed-dial, like a group of people joined in common witness of some striking event. Call on one and word quickly goes out to the larger network of cells, each apparently adding some detail, sight, sound, smell.

So far, so good. But then a few paragraphs later, things get a little out of hand:

In a series of studies, Dr. Sacktor's lab found that [the molecule PKMzeta] was present and activated in cells precisely when they were put on speed-dial by a neighboring neuron.

In fact, the PKMzeta molecules appeared to herd themselves, like Army Rangers occupying a small peninsula, into precisely the fingerlike connections among brain cells that were strengthened. And they stayed there, indefinitely, like biological sentries.

In short: PKMzeta, a wallflower in the great swimming party of chemicals that erupts when one cell stimulates another, looked as if it might be the one that kept the speed-dial function turned on.

Good thing we've got all those wallflower sentry Army Rangers to keep the speed-dial running.

She gets fleetingly, gigglingly nude in a rooftop Jacuzzi, but given that we are in London, not California, this just looked a bit parky to me.

--Guardian review of Basic Instinct 2, written by Peter Bradshaw, 31 March 2006

Turns out "parky" is British slang for "cold."

Later in the review, the following phrase appears: "he gets very frowny and shouty and looks as cross as two sticks." I don't remember whether I've encountered that simile before, but I like it.

I was amused by the following somewhat overextended metaphor. ("RFID" refers to Radio Frequency ID chips.)

"RFID malware is a Pandora's box that has been gathering dust in the corner of our 'smart' warehouses and homes."

--"Viruses could infect RFID," article at Monsters And Critics, 16 March 2006

Block that metaphor!

This just in (a couple weeks ago, when I forgot to post it) from the National Weather Service forecast (which always uses all-caps):

A MODERATION TREND IS EXPECTED TO TAKE HOLD THE LATTER PART OF NEXT WEEK. WE SOMETIMES GET BITTEN BY BACKDOORS FROM NEW ENG WHICH MIGHT BE THE ONLY FLY IN THAT OINTMENT.

Thanks to Melissa R for passing that along.

"Any challenger to a market where one player holds 80 percent share not only has to build a better mousetrap but improve upon the mouse," said Jonathan Spira, chief analyst at Basex, an IT research firm specializing in knowledge sharing and collaboration.

--"Amazon Challenges iPod," article in Red Herring, 16 February 2006

Block that metaphor! ~Yeah, I'd sure buy an improved mousetrap from someone who's also made a better mouse.~

I suppose "improve upon" might mean something like "make less objectionable." But I don't think he thought it through that carefully; I think he just thought it sounded catchy.