Remember girl here, today's topic is mixed metaphors.

Politicians often provide good fodder for language commentary, and one of Barack Obama's

comments during the debates has been rattling around in my head for a while now.

He made a comment that some people think he's green behind the ears, and that struck me

as a mixed metaphor.

I'll back up.

First, a metaphor is a way of comparing two unrelated things to make your point more

vivid.

For example, Shakespeare said all the worlds are stage.

He compared the world to a stage to make his point that we're all like actors in a

play.

That's a metaphor.

Another example of a well-known metaphor is to say someone is walking on thin ice.

It's a way of saying someone is doing something dangerous and creates a vivid image of a

person needing to behave carefully to avoid falling through an ice-covered lake.

The big difference between a metaphor and a simile is that a metaphor doesn't use the

word like, and a simile does.

For example, it's a metaphor to say all the worlds are stage, and it's a simile to say all

the world is like a stage.

Not a big difference in meaning, but it's the kind of thing you can get tripped up on

if you're in school and you have to take a test about similees and metaphors.

You can remember that similees use the word like because simile has the letter L in it.

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