Idioms

Folks in the media need to be more careful about using combinations of words that they have heard others use, but that they have no idea what they mean. Sometime back, I noted someone who described something as a "long road to hoe." One does not hoe a road, one hoes a row. Hoeing is a method of removing weeds from crop plants which are generally planted in rows. A long row to hoe is a lot of work. Some will identify something as a "hard row to hoe." That's OK, because rows with a lot of weeds or rocky or hard soil are in fact hard to hoe. Many who use these terms in current day probably have never held or used a hoe, and probably don't even know what one is.

Another troublesome composition is "pedal to the metal." Those not living through the CB radio days probably really don't know what this means. It simply means pressing a vehicle's accelerator pedal down as far as it will go (assuming there is a metal floorboard underneath the carpet), maximizing acceleration, fuel consumption, eventual speed, and risk. In the context of today's world of public highways and typical vehicles, there is never a logical reason to reach the point of having the accellerator pedal touch or remain for any period of time as it's lower extreme limit.

Using "pedal to the medal," even if it is misunderstood by the speaker, is still better than saying "depressing the accellerator." While functionally correct, depressing something that is intended to increase speed seems counterproductive. It's psychologically unsatisfying anyway. "Punch it" has too many violent connotations, and a punch is an action not normally undertaken with one's foot. "Kick it" implies something you want to get rid of. "Skin 'er back" would take too much explaining about the connection to spinning the tires and leaving a little "skin" of rubber behind them on the road.

In this case, perhaps "shut up and drive" is the best combination of words.