Comparison:
Anomalies tend to get swept under the carpet until there are so many of them that the furniture starts to fall over.
Somebody grab the lamp! Taking an older, overused metaphor and pushing it until the furniture becomes unstable helps make a point.
Context:
So Thomas Kuhn . . . didn’t go far enough. Scientists do not simply fail to treat anomalies as counter-instances; they deny their very existence. Anomalies tend to get swept under the carpet until there are so many of them that the furniture starts to fall over.
Citation:
Whitehead, Charles. “Everything I Believe Might Be a Delusion. Whoa!” Journal of Consciousness Studies, vol. 11, no. 12, 2004, p. 72.