Tim Dowling: ask me how busy I am. Go on, ask me

My friend is trying to invent a catchphrase, but he hasn't had much traction so far. I'm doing what I can to help

My friend Don Bowen may be the only person I know who has sought to coin and popularise a turn of phrase. He wanted his expression to grow organically, so didn't deploy a viral campaign. He waited for people to ask him what he'd been up to. And when they did, he would say: Why, I'm as busy as a horse on an escalator."

He hasn't had much traction so far, probably for more than one reason. It could be that people lack the visual imagination to process the simile. Or they think the expression references a once-common form of cruelty. I've done what I can to help, on the rare occasion opportunity presents itself.