"Grandpa doesn't have time"

My phone conversation with my grandfather today-
Grandpa: You need to get married.
Me: Okay-
Grandpa: Grandpa doesn't have time
Me: I hear that
Grandpa: Grandpa doesn't have time

"miscast"

"Miscast" is an oddly non-judgemental word and somehow appropriate to the theater. It means poorly cast but comes off seeming like there was just a bit of mixup. A miscast play has fundamental problems but "miscast" doesn't capture that.

his honey and his cross

Simon's ability to stand outside himself and to observe the folly of Homo sapiens is both his honey and his cross: instead of working through the emotion he set up in some of his plays, he deflects it with laughs.

from the New Yorker.
The New Yorker often reprints train-wreck metaphors from other publications. This isn't so bad but I think it doesn't work well.