A dictionary of Confusable Phrases: More Than 10,000 Idioms and Collocations

long story • short story
long story —said of a long narrative or account: Miss Sally
told us a long story about her friends and about her “coming-
out party.”
Note: 
The expression does not correlate in meaning with the
phrase tall story—(also: tall tale) a story that is difficult to
believe: Their parents yarned over cups of tea, swapped tall
stories and books.
short story —a piece of fiction shorter than a novel: The short
story of today is one of two kinds — what is called the Mag-
azine Story; and the newer kind which derives from Chekhov.
Long Tom • Tom Long
Long Tom —
1
. a heavy gun of great length: I was already
sergeant when we made a night attack and captured and blew
up Long Tom. 2. (Austral.) a marine fish of the family Beloni -
dae: Long Toms have the habit of leaping from the water,
when either pursuing or being pursued. 3. a gold-washing
cradle: “Long Tom” or cradle was a trough filled with earth,
into which water flowed; the cradle was rocked, and the gold
washed from the earth fell into a tin dish. 4. a particularly
high-powered telephoto camera lens: Russ, grinning, remem-
bered a Long Tom lens he had seen in the hands of one of the
photographers.
Tom Long —said of a lazy, slow man who takes a long time
in coming, etc.: We are very concerned that many people will
be fooled into thinking that they could live with a Tom Long
government.
look a spectacle • look spectacular
look a spectacle —appear silly or ridiculous: Dressed in our
finest raingear, I imagine we did look a spectacle while waiting
for our clothes to become clean once again.
look spectacular —look extremely attractive: Diana looked
spectacular in a continually changing wardrobe of red, black
and white dresses with matching feather boas.