Ivins, Molly -- Essay (1989-09-17), “On Language: The Legislative Mangle,” New York Times Magazine

Dave — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 15:26:38 +0000

Legislators do not merely mix metaphors: they are the Waring blenders of metaphors, the Cuisinarts of the field. By the time you let the head of the camel into the tent, opening a loophole big enough to drive a truck through, you may have thrown the baby out with the bathwater by putting a Band-Aid on an open wound, and then you have to turn over the first rock in order to find a sacred cow.

Molly Ivins (1944-2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
Essay (1989-09-17), “On Language: The Legislative Mangle,” New York Times Magazine
(Source)

Collected in Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She?, "Words and Heroes," epigraph (1991).

WIST Quotations

Ivins, Molly -- Essay (1989-09-17), “On Language: The Legislative Mangle,” New York Times Magazine