Robbing the convenience store
I am introducing a new euphemism into the lexicon: “Robbing the convenience store.”
It is inspired by Jack Bauer’s actions earlier this season on “24.” Jack has a tendency to find the most complicated solution to any problem, but he reached the pinnacle of that behavior when he needed to prevent a suspect from leaving a convenience store, and so he pulled out his gun and held the place up. He didn’t deflate the guy’s tire, or park his own car so the guy’s car was blocked. No, instead he pretended to be a robber and held all the customers — including the suspect — hostage. He accomplished what he wanted to do, but he did it in a very complicated, unnecessarily twisted way.
So now I am using “robbing the convenience store” as a figure of speech meaning “making the problem more complicated than it needs to be.” For example:
MAN #1: So I’m not sure what Sarah meant by that. I think I’m going to call her friend Brittany and see if she knows what Sarah was doing that weekend, or maybe see if I can get a look at some of Sarah’s e-mails.
MAN #2: Dude, you’re robbing the convenience store. Why don’t you just ASK Sarah what she meant?
You get the idea. Feel free to use it in your everyday conversation.