Post #98,998
4/27/03 9:58:27 PM
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Does anyone remember Tom Swifties?
A vogue for these came and went around 1961, as I recall. "Tom Swift" novels, written around 1910-1930 for an audience of teenage boys by "Victor Appleton" (actually Howard Garis, I believe, a prolific hack who turned out teen fiction by the bushel during this period) featured a plucky young boy inventor with implausibly unlimited resources, who was able to manufacture and pilot airships or submarines--the hi-tech of the day. Because Garis (or his subcontractors) were churning out so many books, the style was informed by a certain assembly-line sensibility, one of the most characteristic features of which was the promiscuous use of adverbs. Tom and his friends never merely said something, they said it adverbly. Hence: "Where's Bud?" Tom asked worriedly.
"It's over here!" Tom said urgently.
"It's worse than that," Tom said solemnly. These novels were still sufficiently remembered by grownups in the early 1960s (it didn't hurt that a series of "Tom Swift Junior" books, recycling the old plots, with the tech suitably updated, had been published in the 1950s) that the brief vogue of "Tom Swiftie" jokes, playing upon that stylistic formula, was well-received. Examples: "That's a mighty deep hole," he said gravely.
"The tumor is benign," he insisted. (relies, as many TSes do, on being spoken aloud: insisted/encysted)
"There's no one who can play Nicholas II," he said sarcastically. (ditto)
"Where are the Indians sleepng?" he asked intently. --and so forth. "Anybody else wanna play?" he asked gamely, "Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall ist."
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Post #99,001
4/27/03 11:02:02 PM
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Indubitably.. he said, on Dubya's authority
"Speaking of Trustworthy Computing.." said Billy, oxymoronically -
("Look, I am honest!" he added, contradictorially.)
"Ouch!" exclaimed the Blacksmith, heavy-handedly.
"Explain the Bohr model of the atom" he requested, somewhat nebulously.
[Hey.. I used that one on a test! The Grad student had to *ask* if that was a pun :(]
"I need to buy flowers" she added, lackadaisically.
"We're outta time.." he said, extemporaneously.
"My credit card is maxed out?" he asked, incredulously.
"Don't you know the basics?" she asked, acidly.
"But then.. I never exaggerate" he said, magnanimously.
"Watch Out! for the detonator" he shouted, explosively.
"A War on Terror!" he proposed, Hell-bent for election. [adverbial phrase?]
Gawd - take any Press Release and: freebies!
Ashton (shamelessly)
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Post #99,002
4/27/03 11:05:31 PM
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"They're floating the German currency!"
he remarked.
"Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall ist."
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Post #99,018
4/28/03 1:14:22 AM
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Re: Does anyone remember Tom Swifties?
[link|http://thinks.com/words/tomswift.htm|http://thinks.com/words/tomswift.htm] for more.
I used to love the Tom Swift Jr. books as a kid, and started collecting them again recently. :-)
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Post #99,029
4/28/03 6:02:33 AM
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Oh dear... do you know what you've unleashed?
I shouldn't say it, but I see LRPDism fodder here...
Wade.
Is it enough to love
Is it enough to breathe
Somebody rip my heart out
And leave me here to bleed
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Is it enough to die
Somebody save my life
I'd rather be Anything but Ordinary
Please
| -- "Anything but Ordinary" by Avril Lavigne. |
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Post #99,039
4/28/03 9:19:08 AM
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"Ooh, I hope this gets turned into a LRPDism!"
he said, lerpadistically.
"Vg'f cvff-rnfl gb svther bhg EBG13," he said, cryptically.
John. Busy lad.
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Post #99,150
4/28/03 6:43:43 PM
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"Nog that LRPD noise!" he said, ecStatically.
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Post #99,045
4/28/03 9:48:30 AM
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"Can I ride your Segway?" Tom asked continuously.
Regards,
-scott anderson
"Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson..."
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Post #99,049
4/28/03 10:09:45 AM
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"I got this at the Baghdad Antiquities Museum,"
he said resolutely.
"Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall ist."
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Post #99,058
4/28/03 11:44:20 AM
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I read all the Tom Swift Jr. books
Though I must admit I don't remember the "swifties" aspect of it. Then again, 6th grade was a long time ago.
From [link|http://users.arczip.com/fwdixon/tomswift/|The Unofficial Tom Swift Home Page] I see it was followed by two more series - [link|http://users.arczip.com/fwdixon/tomswift/ts3.htm|Tom Swift III](early 80s) and [link|http://users.arczip.com/fwdixon/tomswift/ts4.htm|Tom Swift IV](early 90s).
Darrell Spice, Jr. [link|http://www.spiceware.org/cgi-bin/spa.pl?album=./Artistic%20Overpass|Artistic Overpass]\n[link|http://www.spiceware.org/|SpiceWare] - We don't do Windows, it's too much of a chore
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Post #99,067
4/28/03 1:24:43 PM
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Woohoo! Swifties for the new millenium.
"I think I've lost all my money in the stock market," he ventured.
"That's because the tech bubble burst!" he exploded.
"After seeing how low the market's gone, I don't think I'll invest any more," he declined.
"I need to log in to my account," he said remotely.
"I am not a bot," he said automatically.
"We are all born originals -- why is it so many of us die copies?"
- Edward Young
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Post #99,068
4/28/03 1:28:53 PM
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Re: Woohoo! Swifties for the new millenium.
"I purchase seafood over the internet," he said efficiently.
"Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall ist."
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Post #99,071
4/28/03 1:38:47 PM
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Adventures of the Economics Professor
"I think I'll go for a walk," he said randomly.
Cheers,
Scott.
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Post #99,070
4/28/03 1:31:12 PM
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"I'll just drag you back into court!" he retorted
--
Chris Altmann
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Post #99,073
4/28/03 1:45:30 PM
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a bit of a stretch, but...
"Why did you allow the General take my hamster with him to Gettysburg?" he asked petulently.
"Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall ist."
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Post #99,147
4/28/03 6:34:57 PM
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"Maybe a bit unfleasible" she said, parasitically.
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Post #99,076
4/28/03 2:12:54 PM
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"It's a beautiful day!" he proclaimed with melacholy.
"It's next on my list." George said procrastinatingly.
| [link|mailto:curley95@attbi.com|greg] - IT Grand-Master for Anti-President | | [link|http://www.iwethey.org/ed_curry/|REMEMBER ED CURRY!] |
-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----\nVersion: 3.12+\nGAT d+ s+:++ a C++++ UBHLO++++ P+ L+++ E---/E---- W+++ N+ o--\nK--- w--- O+ M+ V-- PS-- PE Y+ PGP++ t+ 5++ X+ R tv+ b+++ DI+++\nD++ Q2+++ Q3A+++ UT+++ UT2K3+++ G e* h--- r+++ z+++*\n------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------
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Post #99,128
4/28/03 5:26:17 PM
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"I have a meeting w/ the Pres" he said, absent-mindedly.
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Post #99,134
4/28/03 5:38:29 PM
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LOL!
--
Want to be original? Start with a great template!
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Post #99,145
4/28/03 6:30:14 PM
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"Gah, wrong page.." said Scott,___fetchingly.___'03-ies -
"Got Knoppix 5.000a.0a-Doomed/Experimental - on my server!" said Greg, oddministratively.
"What graft & corruption?" asked BeeP, enronically.
"He's out to launch" said the secretary, pyrotechnically.
"You're fired!" he thundered, dismissively.
"Windows.. Hah!" he spat, billiously.
"You can't cut that tree!" he opined, axiomatically.
"What 'Constitution'?" he hedged, inshrubordinately.
"He was flattened by a Semi" she sobbed, compressionately.
"I just don't get it.." he iterated, cluelessly.
"You've all gone soft!" he dropped on the group, flaccidly.
"I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby" he quartered, pennilessly.
"I've given you kisses for breakfast, kisses for lunch and.. lately I find you've been eating out. Frankly, I gon't give a damn" he simmered, Rhettorically.
"My pet was seriously injured in the hindquarters" he mentioned, catastrophically.
"I've had a cold.." he injected, expectorantly.
...
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Post #99,179
4/28/03 8:57:17 PM
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"That's one melancholy collander," he said incisively
"Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall ist."
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Post #100,177
5/3/03 10:41:56 PM
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Tom Swift novels were a good fast delightful read
I used to have a goodly stack of them,(Montreal is/was a great place for musty books chaply purchased). That writing style was shared by a good many and parodied quite well by a few.
thanx,
bill
will work for cash and other incentives [link|http://home.tampabay.rr.com/boxley/resume/Resume.html|skill set]
questions, help? [link|mailto:pappas@catholic.org|email pappas at catholic.org]
Carpe Dieu
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Post #101,186
5/10/03 12:43:03 AM
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It's an old monk's tune about Susan, he said insouciantly
--\r\n
Karsten M. Self [link|mailto:kmself@ix.netcom.com|kmself@ix.netcom.com]\r\n
[link|http://kmself.home.netcom.com/|http://kmself.home.netcom.com/]\r\n
What part of "gestalt" don't you understand?\r\n
[link|http://twiki.iwethey.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/|TWikIWETHEY] -- an experiment in collective intelligence. Stupidity. Whatever.\r\n
\r\n
Keep software free. Oppose the CBDTPA. Kill S.2048 dead.\r\n[link|http://www.eff.org/alerts/20020322_eff_cbdtpa_alert.html|http://www.eff.org/alerts/20020322_eff_cbdtpa_alert.html]\r\n
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Post #101,195
5/10/03 3:32:54 AM
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"Ow! I've twisted my ankle" he said, disjointedly.
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