"basket house"

[Ben Zimmer]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/06/us/politics/obama-romney-and-economic-slumps.html
"When Mitt Romney arrived, Massachusetts was an economic basket
house," Mr. Fehrnstrom said on ABC’s "This Week" program on Sunday.

Perhaps "basket house" is a blend of "basket case" and, um, "mad house"?

(Note also that the article uses the odd Briticism "overshoes" in the headline.)

--bgz

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Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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