'A dog's breakfast' explained for everyone confused by that CNN alert

CNN sent out a news alert Wednesday that was ... well, a little confusing to some people. 

Here's what it said: "Analysis: With Trump at the helm, US policy in the Middle East has been a dog's breakfast of confusion and contradiction."

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Yes, "a dog's breakfast." If you had no idea what that meant, you weren't alone. 

Chances are a Brit sent out that alert. It's British slang that means "a confused mess or mixture," according to Merriam-Webster.

Back in 1993, readers wondered what the phrase meant when the New York Times published a story with the sentence, "Aides repackaged a dog's breakfast of White House trade and fiscal policies into an 'agenda for American renewal.'"

The writer of the sentence explained it like this: "A dog's breakfast is any kind of smorgasbord prepared, in haste or at random, from life's castoffs. In this case, it was the chicken bones and half-eaten pizzas of policies that the Administration had proposed earlier and Congress had rejected. . . . Cat people wouldn't understand, but anyone who has ever walked a dog down an alley would."

The phrase was traced back to Glasgow, Scotland, in the 1930s. 

Basically, the writer of the CNN story thinks Trump's Middle East policy is a mishmash of leftover and unappetizing ideas. Which, yeah, seems about right. 

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