Tuesday, October 04, 2005

For Ruth...

Tom Swiftie, a play on words that follows an unvarying pattern and relies for its humor on a punning relationship between the way an adverb describes a speaker and at the same time refers significantly to the import of the speaker's statement, as in "I know who turned off the lights," Tom hinted darkly. [named after a narrative mannerism characteristic of the Tom Swift American series of adventure novels for boys]
"The fire's going out!" Tom bellowed. "I will not finish in fifth place", Tom held forth. "I can't play the guitar because my fingers are too big", said Tom fretfully. "Nay!" Tom bridled hoarsely "I like measles!" laughed Tom infectiously. "I hope you're not afraid of needles", Tom injected. "Have you anything by Hugo?" asked Les miserably. via J-Walk

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