The Metaphor Observatory

Here's what you can find on the Metaphor Observatory, my blog dedicated to the study of  metaphor use in contemporary media. It'll develop with me, as I learn the ropes of bloggery and crawl out of writers block. Hopefully, in the end, it will offer future anthropologists something to blame the downfall of society on. For now, it offers a snapshot of modern rhetoric in our own words.

The home page of the Observatory is here: http://metaphorobservatory.blogspot.com  

Recently seen at the Observatory, starting with the latest:

• Top Ten Metaphors of 2007: A Titanic year for metaphor! NEW!!
• Is "The Penn" Mightier Than "The Word"?: Two metaphorists take the ring, only one will take the cake.
• Troop Surge- A 'Rise' By Any Other Name : "Troop surge" floods the airwaves.
• Top Ten Metaphors of 2006 - Lists the most popular metaphors in the media in 2006. For advanced readers/students.  
• Raising A Tsunami: The tsunami metaphor is conceived, born and labored.
• White House Abandons Ship: "Stay the course" slogan written off after being run into the ground.
• Kim Jong-il: An Ass To Be Reckoned With: Pin the idiom on the donkey.
• Foley Fallout's Long Half Life: The down-and-out metaphor is in the House! 
• Hybrids in Style: Our mixed up society is breeding metaphors! 
• Shedding Light on Dawn: The difference between night and day.
• Launching Diplomatic Missiles: Condoleezza Rice fires off opening salvo in peace talks. 
• Psychopharma-parenting: (Stephen) Colbert Report coins another word into currency. 
• New Orleans - The Land of Chocolate: - Mayor Ray Nagin's delicious chocolate metaphor.
• Gambling Metaphors Due To Hit Jackpot: Taepodong missile test raises the stakes.
• Brake, Broke, Broken: We stop to fix our brakes, a spider and our focus. 
• Full Mental Racket: Fuel Gets Pumped:  High octane prices drive metaphor into high gear. 
• Suri: A Rose By Many Other Names - Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes metaphor baby.
• Observed: Fire on the Air - Looks like fire metaphors are getting hotter. 
• Breaking Down A Writer's Block - From mental walls through computer firewalls. 
• Brain Candy and Valentine's Day - Do our symbols of love spoonfeed the soul?
• Windows To The Soul - The pain of Windows.
• CNN's Pipeline Gets Plugged - Feeding, riding and streaming has never been so draining!
• Top Ten Metaphors of 2005 - Lists the most popular metaphors in the media in 2005. For advanced readers/students. 
• From Neverland to Atlantis: Jacko's Meltdown - "Meltdown" is still hot after all these years!
• Xbox Games and Metaphor - Microsoft's name game with game names.
• "Flow" Hits Its Peak - We're still going with the flow...
• When Stars Fall: Aaron Brown / NewsNight Ends - At a loss for good words.
• Baseball Rules! - Special Prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald in a league of his own.
• The Chemistry of Politics - pHun with politics!
• Racy Visual Metaphors - Are car commercials going around the bend...?
• Demographic Prism - Taking rhetoric "lightly".
• Cool Fusion - Metaphors for the atomic age.
• Epidemic of Sick Metaphors - Bird flu strikes foul marketers.
• Folding The Roadmap To Peace - Administrative origami in political rhetoric.
• All A-Bored: The Omnibus - A busload of metaphors.
• The Beef Stops Here - A Florida Representative hams it up!
• A Tidal Wave of Metaphors - The good and bad of tsunami metaphors.
• Flight of the Arthritic - It's hip, it's new - it's a new hip!
• Relief, and Pitcher in Mudville - More baseball with Rita.
• The Not-So-Great Depression - Not such sweet sorrow...
• When Rita Came to Bat - Baseball metaphor out-reigned Rita!
• Overlooking The Obvious (Wow! What a View!) - Evacuation in a heartbeat.
• The Metaphor: Hurricane Rita's First Victim - Wolf Blitzer's better-off-dead metaphor.
• In a Stew Over Toxic Gumbo - (First post) A very insensitive metaphor starts the blog.

Please bear in mind that there are aspects of personal opinion to these observations, and that the Observatory is meant to call attention to the subtleties of metaphor use and impact. The material is mature in nature, though accessible to all.

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