Right in our wheelhouse, wherever it is
Are you in your wheelhouse? If so, is there something special in there with you?
Wheelhouse has been popping up in the news flow often enough lately to catch my eye (and ear). When people use it, they get their point across, but it鈥檚 not always clear what they think a wheelhouse actually is.
It鈥檚 鈥渁n enclosed area on a boat or ship where a person stands to steer.鈥� Thank you, Merriam-Webster. Another dictionary definition explains that the pilothouse (another term for wheelhouse) is the place 鈥渇rom which the ship is usually conned,鈥� or navigated.聽
WNPR, the public radio station serving Connecticut, has a weekly news roundtable called 鈥淭he Wheelhouse.鈥� That title makes sense if a wheelhouse is a place from which to look at what obstacles the ship of state is facing, and how it needs to chart its course going forward.
The show title suggests a latter-day counterpart to 鈥淭he Conning Tower,鈥� the long-running newspaper column written by (1881-1960).
Another outfit whose name draws on this same idea is Wheelhouse LLC, in Tennessee. It describes itself as 鈥渁n innovative executive management firm specializing in growing shareholder value.鈥� It evidently seeks to distinguish itself from the kind of backward-looking management firms that specialize in losing their investors鈥� money. (Sorry, I couldn鈥檛 resist.) To be fair, though, they鈥檝e picked a good image from which to build a corporate name: the place from which you steer.
But what do we make of this headline from a : 鈥淛ohn Morris in his wheelhouse as Canada鈥檚 third for curling championship.鈥� Now curling is one of those phenomena that serve to remind us that Canada and the United States are two very different countries. But the nub of the story was that this fellow Morris demoted himself to third position on his curling team for the good of the whole.
He was exercising what is sometimes known as 鈥渓ateral leadership.鈥� But maybe he was in 鈥渢he鈥� wheelhouse when he was doing it, rather than just 鈥渉is鈥� wheelhouse.
And what about this on the prospects of Tyanna Jones of being able to do a good job in the 鈥淎merican Idol鈥� competition, in which her task was to perform a song made famous by Kelly Clarkson? 鈥淜elly Clarkson songs are so in her wheelhouse.鈥�
So it鈥檚 the thing, and not the person, that鈥檚 in the wheelhouse? Where was Tyanna when Clarkson鈥檚 songs were in her wheelhouse? Out on the promenade deck?
Was the commenter trying to suggest that Clarkson鈥檚 songs were, to use another familiar idiom, 鈥溾��? Or perhaps better yet, to borrow a phrase from sports, 鈥溾�� 鈥� the point from which she is most effective?
Idioms enrich our language with the word pictures they suggest, almost like subplots in a movie. But they work best when their metaphorical origins are still clear 鈥� and clearly understood by both speaker and listener.聽
