Are tributes liquid?

It would appear that the current consensus is that they are. Every news medium I have consulted over the last few days (papers, TV, internet, teletext) has carried reports of tributes "pouring in" for Alex Ferguson on his twentieth anniversary as Supreme Ruler of Old Trafford. Cliché after cliché after fulsome cliché.
This apparent liquidity of tributes surprises me. I'd have thought they'd be more likely to be solid, like a pat on the back, if heartfelt. Or gaseous, like hot air, if insincere. And what do these liquidy tributes pour into? The giant vat of Fergie's ego?

Someone needs to update Myles na Gcopaleen's 'Catechism of Cliché'.

And, by the bye, as the first anniversary of this blog approaches, I would like to invite tributes to pour in. Come on, I'm not getting anything else published. Pour in, you bastards!