Asymmetrical Information

Maybe they are like the dog in the old fable that was crossing the bridge with a bone in his mouth and seeing his reflection in the water and thinking the other dog's bone is larger drops his and jumps into the river to take the other dog's bone but is met with an unpleasant surprise. Forgive the run-on nature of the previous sentence.

I'm not sure I understand your request. Do you want us to compete for truly horrible metaphors or are you looking for particularly apt ones?

How about either? Do go back and read the Tom Friedman post if possible. Fantastic stuff from the readers on the inept metaphor front. But a useful one for "Just when you think you're getting better things get a whole lot worse" might be good too.

Or is asking people for two different kinds of metaphors too confusing? As I mentioned in the intro post, this regular blogging thing is a bit new for me. But I like reader contests.

Bugs Bunny (the Unions) is masquerading as Leopold Stokowski(workers rights) and Fat Opera Star (the Democrats) is forced to hold a high note(pro-union laws) until his face turns purple (party gasping for life) while equally ignorant audience (the voters) watches.
By the way, congratulations to Megan: a mention by John Leo in this weeks US News and World Reprot.

From US News and World Report:

Today, yet another round of inflated estimates is breaking out, this one on the number of homeless veterans. A United Press International story a few months back reported that nearly 300,000 veterans are homeless on any given night. If so, as blogger Megan McArdle pointed out a few weeks ago on Asymmetrical Information, that would mean that every single homeless person in America must have served in the armed forces, since 300,000 is about the total number of the homeless. The 2000 census, covering people living in shelters but not those living on the street, counted only 170,706 homeless people. The Department of Housing and Urban Development asked cities and counties getting federal aid for the homeless to provide statistically valid counts. New York City reported 40,000 homeless, Los Angeles County 90,000,and Chicago 9,600.

Cite:
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/opinion/articles/050801/1john.htm

How about the metaphorical chain of increasingly larger fish going after each other, with the smallest one about to bite on a fisherman's hook? Except this time, the largest fish carries an organ-wasting parasite capable of infecting humans...

As Democrats begin to taste the sweet smell of success, Mr. Roberts comes along and snatches defeat from the jaws of life.

Dang, people, it's a drive in theater! Where you can pop your own popcorn, pull up your (lawn) chair, and pay money to watch a movie. It takes two years to figure this out?

Let's bash Friedman a little! First, we need George Orwell to illustrate how mixed and inapt metaphors are the root of all bad writing, in "Politics and the English Language". [Hat tip: Scott Burgess.]

Then, we need Friedman himself to write a couple of hundred columns proving that he never thinks about the reality underlying his words. An egregious example is examined here.

i was gonna say something about the chinese character for "crisis" but i thought better of it:)

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