Something for SCREAM* to disentangle

There’s nothing like a good mixed metaphor to tickle a merry pedant’s imagination and to keep him/her happy for a few hours. In his book How Jesus became Christian, Professor Barrie Wilson writes that St Paul’s religion “held out the welcome mat with no strings attached”.

I imagine that a 'welcome' mat with strings attached would enable a householder to pull sharply on the strings if a less than welcome visitor was waiting at the door. But a circumstance in which the householder would want to ‘hold out the mat’ (with or without attached strings) is hard to envisage. Perhaps a householder temporarily dumb with a severe throat infection might pick up the welcome mat with one hand and point to the wording on it instead of mouthing a silent "Do come in !". This gesture would probably be easier if there were no strings attached.

* The recently renamed Society for the Care and Rehabilitation of Elderly and Ailing Metaphors. See blog of 14th January.

Something for SCREAM to disentangle