Reply #7: Anyone got a good replacement metaphor? [View All]

[calmblueocean]

Personally, I think the idea of taking a offense at this phrase is just... misguided. It's one thing if somebody used it as a racial slur by shouting it at you, or referring to someone else as a 'tar baby'. But there is an actual metaphor here, the idea of a situation which only gets worse the more you try to extricate yourself from it, and for which the best solution is not to touch it at all. (I guess now the phrase 'tar baby' *is* a tar baby!)

Anyway, while I think it's misguided, I understand that some are offended by hearing the phrase at all, in any context. So what's the suggested replacement phrase? What metaphor or idiom gets across the same meaning?