Heard on the Mad Dog

[James Harbeck]

Some people are genii at mixing cliches. My wife has come up with
some spectacular keepers:

"That really turns my goat."
"We'll have to put the gun to the wire."
"I got it at a dime and pop store."

I think Mad Dog is in the same league, doing basically the same
thing: grabbing words from half-remembered cliches and sticking them
together in a way that feels right. As to why "mustard" feels right,
it may simply be an aesthetic valence taken on through collocation
(cut the mustard), assonance (muster, perhaps), and taste experience
(mustard = extra flavour with an edge).

James Harbeck.

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