A Metaphorical Toyota

 
Back at work. It's not pleasant. But one day my children will thank me .....right?

First thing that I came across was an interesting post from Language Log, a linguistics site that I frequent on occasion. It would appear that Toyota - once most trusted of all motor vehicle brands (my father swears by them) - is now an effective metaphor for things that need to be repaired and apologized for. Look here:

“This book is a Toyota,” said Robert S. Norris, the author of “Racing for the Bomb” and an atomic historian. “The publisher should recall it, issue an apology and fix the parts that endanger the historical record."

The background to this quote:

 William J. Broad, "Doubts Raised on Book's Tale of Atom Bomb", NYT 2/20/2010, discusses a minor scandal of historical documentation: the descriptions of a claimed "secret accident with the [Hiroshima] atom bomb", revealed in a recent non-fiction best-seller, turn out to have been based on lies and fabrications.