A listener in Ellsworth, Michigan, shares a favorite simile from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams: The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don’t. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
If someone’s really intelligent, they might be described with the simile “as smart as a bee sting.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Smart as a Bee Sting” Here’s a simile I really like that comes...
When does a word’s past make it too sensitive to use in the present? In contra dancing, there’s a particular move that dancers traditionally call a gypsy. But there’s a growing recognition that many people find the term gypsy...
A simile is a rhetorical device that describes by comparing two different things or ideas using the word like or as. But what makes a good simile? The 1910 book Fifteen Thousand Useful Phrases, by Yale public-speaking instructor Grenville Kleiser...
Some similes from Grenville Kleiser’s 1910 phrasebook Fifteen Thousand Useful Phrases still feel like tiny bits of poetry. Among the keepers: like footsteps upon wool for treading lightly, the sky was like a peach, and the wonderfully damp quaking...
Would you rather write in a language with no punctuation or without the use of similes or metaphors? Grant and Martha agree that texting has proven our ability to get a point across without periods or commas. On the other hand, sometimes an idea...