Reading time: Less than 1 minute
I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about a metaphor from Frank Bruni.
I first read the writing of Frank Bruni when I stumbled across his 2009 memoir, Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-Time Eater. Chief restaurant critic for the New York Times, from 2004 to 2009 he struggled with his weight for much of his life. I thought the book disappointing because it wasn’t terribly well written. Still, in 2011, Bruni was named a Times Op-Ed columnist —its first openly gay one — and I’ve come to appreciate his fine sense of humour and ear for metaphor.
The man is very funny and never more so than when mocking politicians he dislikes. Guess who’s his number 1 target? You’re right: Donald Trump.
Here is what he had to say about the petulant Republication candidate, in an Aug. 25/15 column:
Let me get this straight. If I want the admiration and blessings of the most flamboyant, judgmental Christians in America, I should marry three times, do a queasy-making amount of sexual boasting, verbally degrade women, talk trash about pretty much everyone else while I’m at it, encourage gamblers to hemorrhage their savings in casinos bearing my name and crow incessantly about how much money I’ve amassed? Seems to work for Donald Trump.
But if he hadn’t knocked it out of the park with that introduction, he certainly did with a follow up metaphor, poking fun at Trump’s hair:
Maybe his pompadour has mesmerized them. It could, in the right wind, be mistaken for a halo.
I think the photo, above, illustrates his point.