Fractured Cliché: Sow your wild goats
Correct Cliché: Sow your wild oats
My skill with fracturing clichés is not limited to speech. Sure, I’ve vocalized more than my fair share of mistakes, but I’ve misunderstood just as many.
Take this week’s example.
A friend was talking about taking an extravagant vacation and said she wanted to sow her wild oats. I thought she had changed the subject and asked why she’d want to sew goats. What did she want to put on them? For that matter, why would she want to sew anything. If she wanted sewn goats so badly, she should just go buy some.
Once she quit laughing, she explained that she said sow your wild oats. I stopped her at that point because I got it.
Sewing goats made perfect sense at the time because it tied in with another cliché: you reap what you sew! (Yes, I know it’s wrong…)
May the farce be with you!
Your IFF,
Pam
Sewing wild goats