Bogash v. Baltimore Cigarette Service, 193 F.2d 291, 292 (4th Cir. 1951)(quoting Walling v. Sanders, 136 F.2d 78, 81 (6th Cir. 1943)). The Fair Labor Standards Act included an exemption for "retail establishments." Courts had interpreted this term to include integrated operations that joined a central warehouse and office to retail outlets. In Bogash, the defendant sold cigarettes in vending machines and unsuccessfully claimed that the warehouse and central office served the retail operations of the vending machines. For another case, further analyzing this analogy, see Hodgson v. Servomatic-jax, 323 F. Supp. 1047 (N.D. Miss. 1971).

Sometimes judges and scholars use analogies and metaphors to characterize the development of the law itself. See, e.g., F.W. Maitland, A Prologue to a History of English Law, 14 Law Q.Rev. 13, 13 (1898)(law is a "seamless web"); Daytona Beach News-Journal Corporation v. FirstAmerica Development, 181 So.2d 565 (Fla. App. 1966)("Nicholas St. John Green, some ninety years ago stated that the law of slander and libel is analogous to a crooked, wrenched and distorted tree. Green, 'Slander and Libel,' 6 Am.L.Rev. 593 (1872)").