December 11, 2014

"He tried to make a mountain out of a mole hill and wound up being badly mauled by angry moles."

Said Bob Boyd, commenting in the thread about the Harvard professor's bizarre email exchange with the Chinese restaurateur.

And I said:
Why would moles get angry if you expressed the view that their hill was actually a mountain? I would think that they'd either feel chuffed or they'd feel neutral and simply agree that it's a mountain as far as they are concerned. What is a mountain to a mole? I say their molehill feels like a mountain and that which we call a mountain lies outside of the perception of a mole.
AND: Caved and made a tag for "moles." I'm delighted with the results of adding it retrospectively to old posts... because there are 2 kinds of moles. I'm allowing them to play together in what we might called a game of tag.

24 comments:

traditionalguy said...

Let me mole that around for a while.

Rob said...

If the molehill won't come to the mole, then the mole must go to the molehill. Not to be confused with the mole who went to the mohel.

traditionalguy said...

Is this about the MSG mole-cule?

Richard Dolan said...

It's a matter of perspective and proportionality, ideas rooted in history and common sense rather than logic. The riposte about the hill's really being a mountain of sorts is an appeal to the logic of consumer protection, not the specifics of the case. The common law was quite good at accommodating perspective and proportionality in deciding cases flexibly, adjusting legal rules as needed to reach a sensible result; the modern regulatory state, not so much.

Ann Althouse said...

There's also the chocolate sauce.

And the spy.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

Also the chemistry unit of measure.

SJ said...

What about this kind of mole?

Anonymous said...

Hopefully Meade will still continue to stand with Edelman.

traditionalguy said...

With that many meanings Moles could be a great new team name for Wisconsin football which seems to have a big time Runaway Coach problem from calling themselves Badgers.

Badger coaches, they don't care.

n.n said...

A principle is a mountain, not a mole hill. Perhaps he's referring to its defense, that begins with a mole hill and grows to become a mountain. Of course, the content or quality of the principle should be independently measured and proportionately enforced. That said, the professor could have used rent-a-mob to picket the establishment.

Gahrie said...

There are also the moles used as piers...

Clyde said...

As in skin tag? Although those are slightly different from moles. Some might be both.

Bob Boyd said...

I'm moving the comment from the old thread to the new one. I didn't realize you'd front paged the mole analogy until just now.

"Why would moles get angry..."

Moles can be touchy. And proud. Better to reign on a mole hill than serve on a mountain I guess.

Anonymous said...

Then there's whack-a-mole, with the dickweed prof as the whackee.

alan markus said...

Looks like he is experienced at this:

There’s More: Edelman Did This Before, And Worse

I was never into the Groupon thing myself.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

But in the metaphorical use (here) the hill isn't a good thing--it's more like saying "making a mountain of shit out of a molehill of dung," in which case there aren't any moles at all. It's an indirect form of personification, I suppose, so a figure of speech within a metaphor.

I also like the use of "chuffed," has someone been listening to the BBC lately?

Clark said...

The moles don't get angry because you expressed the view that their hill is a mountain; they get angry because their hill has been turned into a mountain, which is (I imagine) very disruptive and upsetting.

Fernandinande said...

He tried to make a mountain out of a mole hill ...blah blah

No he didn't. He just tried to get back money that a dishonest, uncooperative sleaze-bag owed him.

Boston.com and other people who are inventing ideas about mountains and molehills and how Harvard profs deserve to be ripped-off are making a mountain out of it.

Unknown said...

perhaps we should ask the boffins whether the moles should feel chuffed or not?

SeanF said...

Fernandinande: He just tried to get back money that a dishonest, uncooperative sleaze-bag owed him.

Given that he turned the restaurant over to the authorities before he even got a response to his first request for his money back, I think you're being awfully generous with your "just" here.

chillblaine said...

I may be looney, but I feel the blog has an animal theme today. I may just be fishing, but I consider lots of commenters to be chums.

Be said...

Discretement, elle se tut.

missred said...

The Edelman who went up a hill and came down a mountain.

Bad Lieutenant said...

The prof's response was gobsmacking, to be sure, but haven't we all had that pricing microaggression run on us from time to time? Certainly pisses me off and if they're gonna bump the prices they can damned well print/post new menus. Any tolerable website should have a content management system that allows changes to menu dishes and prices.

That said, a good Chinese restaurant is too valuable to alienate. Do they have dim sum?