This sentence deserves some sort of award: The President just keeps hitting on long balls while the Right begs him to run the ball into the line to show how tough they are.
Actually, I kind of liked that sentence. I am not sure it's true, but it does well express OJ's view on the issue.
I am still of a mixed mind on whether President Bush will be considered a pivotal figure as OJ thinks, as the keystone of a future "ownership society".
"Hitting on the long ball" is the phrase. That could be a football reference of sorts. Some stock alternatives would have been "throwing the Hail Mary" or perhaps "throwing the bomb", which considering Bush's present straits might not be any improvement.
Hmmm. I took it as a synonymn for "going for the fence", i.e. putting the effort in to the big plays and letting the small plays go. I had the same interpretation of "running the ball in to the line" as Oroborous, i.e. the American football play of handing the ball to a running back who then charges full tilt in to scrimmage line for a yard or two.
I, too, think that "running the ball into the line" comes from football. (By the way, what ever happened to the "football is unAmerican" rants? Have we found a argument that OJ has backed away from?) I have no idea, though, what to make of "hitting on long balls."
If it were "hitting long balls" then that would unmistakably be a baseball idiom. It would even make some sort of sense: despite the fact that the President keeps hitting home runs, the Right begs him to ... well, there it falls apart. Bunt? Sacrifice? Foul out? But the mixing in of the football phrase makes this untenable. If the game really is football, then the Right would be right to beg the president to stop hitting the football.
Maybe the Right is just playing the wrong game? That makes some sort of sense, although it doesn't seem to be the point the story leads up to. I'm not aware that the Right is opposing our India policy because, for example, of a focus on Europe.
I think he was thinking football, and meant "hitting [i.e., connecting] on long bombs [i.e., throws]", thus providing some continuity with the obvious football reference of carrying it into the line.
As usual, OJ is mixing metaphors. But when the chickens come home to roost, you have to sleep in the bed that you buttered, and so he'll stubbornly dance with the ones who closed the barn door after the eggs were hatched.
That has to be one of the ugliest sentences I have read in a long time that didn't eminate from the pen of Maureen Dowd.
At the most charitable, it is a hopelessly mixed metaphor.
More realistically, the first half of the sentence makes sense only if one substitutes something like "Chav at the end of the bar" for "long ball," as in:
Hitting on the Chav at the end of the bar.
That makes the first half of the sentence sensible, without making the metaphor more hopeless than it already was.
12 comments:
Actually, I kind of liked that sentence. I am not sure it's true, but it does well express OJ's view on the issue.
I am still of a mixed mind on whether President Bush will be considered a pivotal figure as OJ thinks, as the keystone of a future "ownership society".
Ah, then you're doing better than I am because you have a theory about what it means. I have no idea what it means.
"Hitting the long ball" appears to be a baseball analogy; "running the ball into the line" may well be a reference to football, American style.
"Hitting on the long ball" is the phrase. That could be a football reference of sorts. Some stock alternatives would have been "throwing the Hail Mary" or perhaps "throwing the bomb", which considering Bush's present straits might not be any improvement.
Hmmm. I took it as a synonymn for "going for the fence", i.e. putting the effort in to the big plays and letting the small plays go. I had the same interpretation of "running the ball in to the line" as Oroborous, i.e. the American football play of handing the ball to a running back who then charges full tilt in to scrimmage line for a yard or two.
I, too, think that "running the ball into the line" comes from football. (By the way, what ever happened to the "football is unAmerican" rants? Have we found a argument that OJ has backed away from?) I have no idea, though, what to make of "hitting on long balls."
If it were "hitting long balls" then that would unmistakably be a baseball idiom. It would even make some sort of sense: despite the fact that the President keeps hitting home runs, the Right begs him to ... well, there it falls apart. Bunt? Sacrifice? Foul out? But the mixing in of the football phrase makes this untenable. If the game really is football, then the Right would be right to beg the president to stop hitting the football.
Maybe the Right is just playing the wrong game? That makes some sort of sense, although it doesn't seem to be the point the story leads up to. I'm not aware that the Right is opposing our India policy because, for example, of a focus on Europe.
No. I did send my daughter to her room for interrupting her mother during dinner.
While it doesn't seem to fit OJ's sentence, "hitting the long ball" could also apply to golf.
The comments here are much kinder than what was said directly in the post.
I think he was thinking football, and meant "hitting [i.e., connecting] on long bombs [i.e., throws]", thus providing some continuity with the obvious football reference of carrying it into the line.
As usual, OJ is mixing metaphors. But when the chickens come home to roost, you have to sleep in the bed that you buttered, and so he'll stubbornly dance with the ones who closed the barn door after the eggs were hatched.
That has to be one of the ugliest sentences I have read in a long time that didn't eminate from the pen of Maureen Dowd.
At the most charitable, it is a hopelessly mixed metaphor.
More realistically, the first half of the sentence makes sense only if one substitutes something like "Chav at the end of the bar" for "long ball," as in:
Hitting on the Chav at the end of the bar.
That makes the first half of the sentence sensible, without making the metaphor more hopeless than it already was.
It sounds like a password in a John Le Carre novel.
Quite beautiful in a way. Haunting, if you read it aloud in a melancholy tone of voice.
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