Call me by my Right Name
My cousin refers to himself as a "sanitary engineer", a euphemism of
garbage collector. There are any number of people try to find more
respectable and glamorous titles for the jobs they hold. It may seem
incongruous to call an undertaker "condolence counselor", or refer to
a taxi driver as "transportation expediter". As a matter of fact, our
butcher has stipulated that from now on he wants to be known as a "
meat coordinator". He became irate when I inadvertently called him 
"butch".

To go up in smoke--The mayor's plans to get the gubernatorial nomination
went up in smoke when he couldn't end the costly strike.
(to come to no practical result)