Mike Gansey, president of basketball operations for the Philadelphia 76ers on the types of players he wants (and doesn’t want): “. . . I want fountains, not drains. I want guys with high character, guys with high work ethics, and guys that want to be in Philadelphia.” 1/2

Steve Martin on IG: “We love working with Jennifer Saunders, for whom chewing the scenery is fine dining.“ Farm-to-theater table??! Hmmm . . . #languagefun

Refrigerator magnets and Scrabble tile bags! Mary Geddry on Trump in a Fox interview with his Daughter-in-law: “Then the fog machine really got going. 1/5

Mary Geddry on Trump on MoCA: “The MoCA is not an intelligence test. It is a screening tool used to detect possible cognitive impairment. Passing it does not mean you are a genius. 1/3

How would you enhance a mundane, shopworn, stealth one-word (verb) metaphor? For instance “roar,' or “melt,“ or “spiral,“ or “roar,“ or "crash"? Ian Bogost in The Atlantic takes the ordinary stealth metaphor of “howl,“ and enlarges its scope and importance by going intergalactic: “cosmic howl." 1/2

@szacharek.bsky.social notes about Steven Soderbergh: “He’s like a jewel thief in reverse, dropping off the gems then vanishing into the night.“ How many other writers do you know who declare an “in reverse“ to capture a comparison insight? #perspective #insight #Soderbergh #metaphorsandbeyond

I'm not saying this nation's senior administration isn't capable of holding their own in China. I'm just saying they conduct themselves like a dysfunctional high school prom committee fighting over which DJ to hire. I guess I am saying that. No offense intended to dysfunctional prom committees.

Mary Geddry on Giants and Mosquitoes: "Protecting almost every vessel passing through Hormuz is vastly more expensive than forcing the world to wonder whether the next vessel might be hit, 1/2

Mary Geddry on recent Strait of Hot Hormuz actions: Project Freedom,. . . was not strategic brilliance. It was the latest object hurled at the wall. . . . 1/2

Mary Geddry:  “It turns out war is only war if the White House clicks ‘confirm.‘ Until then, it’s just a lightly militarized misunderstanding involving explosives. “ #insight #perspective

Mary Geddry on those in seemingly solid political bases: “The bases still love their own teams, of course, but the independents are drifting, and not in a ‘let’s find common ground‘ kind of way. In fact, voters in both camps increasingly want their leaders to fight harder, not cooperate. 1/2

The Globe and Mail's Coyne created a doozy: Occam's kazoo. Elegant, precise, and telling. Thank you. #languagefun #insight #perspective

Mary Geddry on Substack cuts loose on Trump and Trumpism around the occasion of Earth day and various other points of focus: “Earth is not sending us a polite memo. It is pounding on the door.” And, “Nothing says master strategist quite like removing the brakes 1/2

Levend Montgomery on people and politics: “The republic needs citizens who think, vote, serve, and hold power accountable. What it does not need — what it has never needed — is citizens who have made politics the load-bearing wall of their identity." 1/2

Brandi Carlile to Amy Poehler concerning why she would rather spend a day together with a friend while not needing to talk (much) than to yak a bunch: “I’d rather be together, but that doesn’t mean that I want to like lay myself down across the puddle like a jacket to spend time with you.” #simile

Who's knocking on your cyber-door? Seth Godin on Spamming AI Agents with sales pitches: “And now, here come AI agents. These are spammers disguised as door-to-door salespeople. They know your name, your history, your details . . . . 1/2

Bill Whitehead offers one of those cartoons that in the hands of a talented writer could form a potent verbal analogy. Which writer, content producer, or wordsmith do YOU know who could turn this into a great analogy? Do tell! #languagefun #metaphorasandbeyond

Follow-through seths.blog/2026/03/foll...

Ah, when SCOUS fires up the boiler some people have to take off their crowns. Do tell. How's your budget vis-à-vis the Republican tariffs? www.metaphorsandbeyond.com/post/who-exa...

Mary Geddry concerning wartime supplies: “. . . the administration is also out here behaving like someone who just opened the pantry and discovered it’s mostly napkins and one stale sleeve of crackers.“ Oops. Call to nearby grocery stores?! #insight #perspective #awareness #metaphorsandbeyond

Chicken Licken's homage to Bollywood www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Xu-...

Casino Brawl-Bawl @postmonkey.bsky.social

S. Hurt's on Oregon's Bay Area: “There are weeks when the headlines feel like a fist, when the world seems to be run by people who talk about ‘options‘ and ‘leverage‘ the way you might talk about furniture, and the cost of those options is paid in bodies that never agreed to be a bargaining chip.“

Bret Stephens in the NYT on the Trump State of the Union Speech: “All of which means that Trump is becoming the very thing that destroyed the Democrats in the last term: a reality-denial machine. 1/2

From Shanley Hurt: Loud, brash, and rude vs. quiet, committed, and purposeful in the reintroduction of juvenile giant tortoises to Floreana Island in the Galápagos: “The project is not a simple rewind button; it is more human than that, messier, more honest, and therefore more miraculous. 1/3

Mary Geddry on the Supreme Court decision on King Trump's tariffs. "Three words [It does not.] that function, in context, as a legal guillotine." Off with their tariffs! #perspective #SCOTUS #insight

According to Seth Godin our use of tech to accomplish previously challenging tasks (e.g., portrait photos, or typesetting) “began with the Model T. Before that, people with enough money to buy a car also had a driver.“ How often do you use historical analogies to create perspective? 1/2

“Sky Puppies” a brilliant use of words to create awareness and concern. Well done! Thanks to Beth S. for the post elsewhere! Just don’t tell Bruce Wayne! #insight #perspective

“That last stretch where time stops behaving like a straight line and starts acting like a nervous animal pacing the room.“ . . . “Inside the National Press Club, the building where American political reality is usually softened, filtered, and politely explained, State of the Swamp will kick 1/2

Concerning Pam Bondi: “‘Trump orders up prosecutions like pizza and you deliver every time he tells you to go after James Comey, Letitia James, Lisa Cook and Jerome Powell, the head of the Federal Reserve Board, and members of Congress,’ [Jamie] Raskin said.” Edge out Domino’s & the Hut??!

“. . . it would be a mistake to treat President Trump as the origin of the ultra-powerful presidency. He is merely picking up the weapons that previous administrations left lying around and waltzing through the loopholes they opened.“ -libertarian Katherine Mangu-Ward What a loophole waltz! Whoa!

Frederick Buechner on reading Hebrew and Christian scripture (aka the Bible) as literature: “The trouble is it's not like any other book. To read the Bible as literature is like reading Moby Dick as a whaling manual or The Brothers Karamazov for its punctuation. . . . 1/2

Anne Lamott: “. . . shine a little brighter. . . lighthouses do not run all over the island looking for boats to save. They just stand there, giving off light. Now, in the face of the current streams of evil, some days are just too long, period, and all one can do is to keep the patient comfortable”

Mary Geddry: “The Trump regime keeps testing the rule of law the way a burglar tests door handles, rattling everything, everywhere, all at once. If a door opens, it walks through. If it doesn’t, it moves on and tries the next one.“ #insight #perspective

Peter Wehner on Minn.: Americans are not merely corks in Trump’s raging ocean. Courage inspires courage. Success inspires imitation. Living in truth; cultivating the sphere of truth; joining together to stand for truth and against intimidation, repression, and state-sanctioned violence— 1/2

Greg Grandin on America First not as isolationist but “anti-universalist, as a tribalist nationalism that rejects the burden of global stewardship while clinging fiercely to regional supremacy.” The Monroe Doctrine enables “dominance without entanglement.” Great essay. www.ft.com/content/4e0e...

RJ Young opens a recent piece by designating former ‘bama coach Nick Saban a “Sith Lord” due his connection to the four remaining D-1 football coaches contending for the national championship. Thereafter he returns to Earth by this enhanced stealth metaphor: 1/2

According to Mary Geddry, the Orange one's republican fentanyl lie served as a “moral fig leaf“ for the military action in Venezuela.

Mary Geddry on Substack notes concerning some in the U.S. Congress recognizing that too much power has been given to the executive branch by republicans: “Having set the house on fire, Congress is now earnestly discussing the importance of smoke detectors.“ #metaphorsandbeyond #insight #perspective

". . . make even Scrooge blush." Takes an historical stealth metaphor and drives home the degree of disgusting greed. Thanks @rbreich.bsky.social! #metaphorsandbeyond #perspective #insight

Adam Chandler on the experience of visiting a Crumbl store: “Visiting a Crumbl can seem a bit like stepping into an Instagram Reel directed by North Korea state media and shot by Norman Rockwell.“ #metaphorsandbeyond

Mary Geddry on 10 Dec. 2025: “Meanwhile, Trump’s first day back in office was spent tearing up the Paris agreement, gutting clean energy policy, and setting fossil fuel companies loose like feral hogs at a congressional picnic.“ 1/2

Mary Geddry on Republican Trump's announcement of National Park Service Free-Entry Days: “. . . on the subject of theatrical distractions, remember the National Park Service’s suddenly generous free-entry policy, rolled out with all the finesse of a clearance sale in a collapsing mall. . . . 1/2

Rex Huppke on the high seas: “As Trump’s decade-plus time as captain of the MAGA cruise ship winds its way into infamy, it appears the rats are either fleeing the ship or gearing up to fight over scraps in the galley.” Thanks @rexhuppke.bsky.social ! #metaphorsandbeyond

Blake Toppmeyer offers this effervescent gas cavity comparison concerning possible D-1 football playoff teams: “Alabama’s resume is as good or better than that of Notre Dame, Brigham Young, Miami, Vanderbilt, Texas, Utah or anyone else you might want to shove onto this crowded bubble.”

Hens in danger?! www.metaphorsandbeyond.com/post/how-muc...

Brent Molnar: "America is running a real, functioning system of cruelty that would make a Bond villain blush." Blushing Bond villains seemingly are rare, but important component parts of an insightful non-literal comparison. Thanks Brent Molnar!

Mary Geddry: "The “strong consumer” our pundit class loves to invoke is really the top ten percent of earners, who still account for about half of U.S. consumption. 1/2 (go to comments for the hamster wheel comparison!)

Will Bunch writing in the Philly Inquirer addresses the financial implications of common people finding out about behaviors of tony elites: "I’m not a financial expert, but if I had disposable cash I’d avoid the hyperinflated AI bubble and invest in a company that manufactures pitchforks."