Cliches Come a-Cropper

   A single day of listening to cable TV news yielded the following crop of cliches, mixed metaphors and nonsense phrasings:

   Yeah, well, um, y'know, at the end of the day, when we look at the situation as a whole, we really only see the tip of the iceberg, so we need to step back and remember that the proof is in the pudding, and it's time to put our ducks in a row, stand up and be counted and avoid the tipping point that leads to a bunker mentality.
   The fact of the matter is that we're in a different ball game, and we have a window of opportunity to look for the smoking gun that will point to a tectonic shift.
   It's an existential threat, to say the least, so we must follow the bouncing ball in a multiple carom shot and let the chips fall where they may.
   Meanwhile, they've got him over a barrel as the witch hunt continues to bear fruit.

   Editor's note: If you must use a cliche, at least get it right. The  proof of any pudding is in the eating, not in the pudding itself. A bouncing ball in a multiple carom shot mixes two unrelated techniques; a video guiding a singalong with a billiards maneuver. And witch hunts can never produce apples or any other fruit.
   Modern  geology has given us the phrase "tectonic shift," which refers to plates which make up the earth's surface touch each other (tectonic) and over time increased pressure causes them to move. Result: An earthquake. So a tectonic shift is a major event, but not every change in politics and society rises to that level of importance.
   Finally, how is an "existential threat" different from any other kind of threat? Is it because it threatens the very existence of someone or something?
   Metaphors are useful phrases, but excess use deprives them of any value they might have once had in conveying information. They then become cliches.