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Literary similes

Posted by Gary on January 28, 2003

In Reply to: Literary similes posted by R. Berg on January 28, 2003

: : I am starting to see colorful phrases everywhere. Here are a few I collected from a suspense/science fiction novel I just read:

: : SQUARE AS A SALTINE CRACKER -- "He supposed that he'd never be hip. His fate was to be as square as a saltine cracker."

: : HELL'S GOT A BED WAITING -- "Hell's got a bed waiting for me, sure enough."

: : NUTTIER THAN A ONE-POUND JAR OF JIF -- "If we operate under the assumption that he was just nuttier than a one-pound jar of Jif, we're making a mistake that could get us killed." (Jif is a brand of peanut butter.)

: : PUSH HER GO-NUTS BUTTON -- "Even in response to Dylan - who for some reason had the power to push her go-nuts button as no one before him - even in response to him, the knee-jerk reactions were stupid."

: : BRISTLED BETTER THAN A WIRE BRUSH -- "'Don't be so negative all the time.' She bristled better than a wire brush."

: : GIVE TIMID LESSONS TO A MOUSE -- "For your information, I was nothing once, a wadded-up-thrown-away-Kleenex of a kid. Shy, shaky shy, rubbed so thin by life I half believed sunlight passed through me. Could've given timid lessons to a mouse."

: : From "By the Light of the Moon" by Dean Koontz, Bantam Books, New York, 2002.

: Koontz's writing desk is obviously haunted by the ghost of Raymond Chandler, who wrote "I belonged in Idle Valley like a pearl onion on a banana split."

Until recently in the UK Jif was a cleaning fluid. It became Cif - now I can see why.

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