Thanks, Charles. I may have read too many bios of Abe Lincoln, the log-splitter, not splitter-open, to have had had an entirely objective eye on that one. Or maybe I had read too many of the author's quadruple-decker metaphors elsewhere in the book.

In any case, I appreciate your point about the oomph. I might have reacted differently to that phrase had it come from a less metaphor-happy writer.