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Years ago, I ran across this passage Stephen Schiff wrote about Australian film director Fred Schepisi for The New Yorker:
Why metaphor?
Metaphor is a literary device that helps readers understand, pay attention, remember and act on messages.… Read the full article
When my grandfather first saw a car, he didn’t think “automobile.” He thought, “That’s a carriage that moves without a horse — it’s a horseless carriage.”… Read the full article
When I wrote an annual report about charitable giving in Kansas City, I wanted to compare the $770 million Kansas Citians gave to charitable organizations in one year to make that number more meaningful to the audience.… Read the full article
Compare the impact of this statement …’
“Each day, we lose 30 children to gun violence.”
… to the impact of this one:
“Each day, we lose a classroom of children to gun violence.”
If I came to your house and told you to grab your things and follow me, how far would you go?… Read the full article
What does an epilepsy seizure taste like?
That’s the question Paul Harding answers in this passage of his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Tinkers:
Call it a cliché makeover.
Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, breathes new life into old, worn-out phrases in his 2006 letter to shareholders.… Read the full article
I don’t know an adagio from an allegro. (Although I have been told that my andante needs to accelerando if I want to keep up with my husband in the airport.)… Read the full article
When Pacific Northwest National Laboratory science writer Tom Rickey wrote a release about the lab’s work “Making dams safer for fish around the world,” he didn’t get lost in the scientific gobbledygook.… Read the full article
