Nov 19, 2008

To bake, or not to bake?

A couple cliches of November...

The "cake is baked," a not very cute way of saying "inevitable," has been getting a lot of use in recent weeks. Slightly more folksy than "done deal" and "train has left the station," the baked cake can be used to describe a whole range of inevitabile outcomes, from elections to legislation.

The second cliche isn't a phrase but a literary allusion. Shakespeare's Hamlet has been resurrected to describe the apparent indecisiveness of those offered a place in Obama's White House. Before Rahm Emanuel accepted the chief of staff job, his act was dubbed the "Forced Hamlet." Now, Hillary Clinton is being called "Secretary Hamlet" for dragging her feet on the secretary of state job - of course, several pundits think the cake is baked on this one.

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