Which of your phrase-turns are you most proud of?

AKA - Killing your poodles

 

Proving definitively that 'find your favorite line and delete it' is completely idiotic.

'How are the hot dogs at Notre Dame?'
'Not bad....a tad malodorous.'

 

Killing your poodles? I thought that was a euphemism for ... never mind.

 

That would be killing kittens, king.

I've always heard the line-edit thing referred to as killing your babies, which is pretty harsh.

Hustle, listen, I think this could have been a good thread. But I feel like, with google and Lexus Nexus, people are scared to share favorite lines, because it's an immediate risk for outing. It also puts you on deck for some brutal criticism, which you have discovered.

I didn't mind your line, although I agree that it read too much like your hard work, and I sure didn't take your posting it as a brag. And if we're being honest, we all have lines that we're proud of.

For me, it's usually been a good metaphor or analogy, because they can be tough to pull off.

When I wrote my first story for Esquire -- flat-out shitting myself, knowing that everybody was going to wonder why some no-name dickhead was writing in place of Charlie Pierce -- I hit what I thought was a good note, writing about Barry Zito. I wrote that his curveball "dropped like a broken heart."

A little while later, Tim McCarver -- yeah, yeah -- said nice things about the story and quoted the broken heart line on TV during the all-star game. That made me feel a little better about the job I'd done. I'm still forever on the verge of cracking up and being called an imposter, because I am one, but I think of that line fondly, not so much because of the line itself, but because of where it went and how good that made me feel, if only for a few minutes.

Hope that story fits with the thread you had in mind.

 

Keep it simple, stupid.

 

I used this when I first joined the board in reference to a columnist, who shall remain nameless (but if you can't guess, you aren't paying attention.)

He was the whore to end all whores

 

This may out me, but when the lights went out for a minute during a HS basketball game, I wrote that: Bumbleburg shot the lights out Saturday night. Literally.

 

I'm not Jeff Duncan, but from the BASW 2006 thread and the Jeff Duncan story:

That's some good shit.

 

i can't turn a phrase worth a shit in a story, but i feel like i write good headlines.

About 10 years ago some kid in the Heisman race was silenced by his coach. Couldn't talk to tv, radio, newspapers (he didn't factor into the Heisman in the end). there was a story about it and my headline was ...

Heisman winner could be speechless

 

EMT!


Paramedic, I need a paramedic!

 

I'll throw one out there.

A couple of years ago, I wrote that an ace pitcher's game wasn't all candy and flowers.

I still like it.

Buit I've had some really, really bad ones. Hell, I had one last week.

 

Old Man Periwinkle at 32 yards.