I'm hoping I can "do a thing" which cracks the importance of
   metaphor open in a big way. Academic linguists like Lakoff (he's
   good, look him up) wrote some stuff on it - he now helps
   politicians write better speeches for $$ - smart tongue emoticon
   - and there's a _great_ easy to read 10 page PDF by an Air Force
   professor (US Military) called "Metaphors we are led by",
   showing the positive and negative side of metaphors and EXACTLY
   how they work to get us to understand things. Just found it a
   few days ago and *he* put into a simple chart what I've been
   trying to find words for for a long time myself. He was the
   final piece of the puzzle for me.