Troubled economy hatches streams of mixed metaphors

EXTRA CREDIT

The lede of an A2 article in Wednesday's WSJ:

"President Barack Obama's $825 billion stimulus package is hatching against a drumbeat of dour economic news, from plunging consumer confidence to a stream of layoff announcements, some at firms that stand to benefit from the plan."

A plan can hatch, but how can anything hatch "against a drumbeat"? And how can a drumbeat include a "stream"?

If the first graf is a George Orwell nightmare, the second is a Malcolm Gladwell joke.

"The developments are raising new doubts about whether the plan will be enough, or come in time, to moderate an increasingly sever downturn."

For those who don't know, Gladwell, a former Washington Post staff writer and bureau chief, and current New Yorker science writer extraordinare, catch phrase whiz and bestseller machine, once did a riff for This American Life on a newsroom competition to use the phrase "raises new and troubling questions" in as many stories as possible.