High School is to Analogies Like...

These are the winners of the “worst analogies ever written in a high
school essay” contest run by the Washington Post: (permission pending)

1. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy
who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes
with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools
about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with
a pinhole in it.
(Joseph Romm, Washington)

2. She caught your eye like one of those pointy hook latches that used to
dangle from screen doors and would fly up whenever you banged the door open
again.
(Rich Murphy, Fairfax Station)

3. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling
ball wouldn’t.
(Russell Beland, Springfield)

4. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty Bag filled with
vegetable soup.
(Paul Sabourin, Silver Spring)

5. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie,
surreal quality, like when you’re on vacation in another city and “Jeopardy”
comes on at 7 p.m. instead of 7:30.
(Roy Ashley, Washington)

6. Her hair glistened in the rain like nose hair after a sneeze.
(Chuck
Smith, Woodbridge)

7. Her eyes were like two brown circles with big black dots in the center.
(Russell Beland, Springfield)

8. Bob was as perplexed as a hacker who means to access=20
T:flw.quid55328.com\aaakk/ch@ung but gets \flw.quidaaakk/ch@ung=20 by mistake.
(Ken Krattenmaker, Landover Hills)

9. Her vocabulary was as bad as, well, whatever.
(Unknown)

10. He was as tall as a six-foot-three-inch tree.
(Jack Bross, Chevy Chase)

11. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry
them in hot grease.
(Gary F. Hevel, Silver Spring)

12. Her date was pleasant enough, but she knew that if her life was a movie
this guy would be buried in the credits as something like “Second Tall
Man.”
(Russell Beland, Springfield)

13. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the
grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left
Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m.
at a speed of 35 mph.
(Jennifer Hart, Arlington)

14. The politician was gone but unnoticed, like the period after the Dr. on a
Dr Pepper can.
(Wayne Goode, Madison, Ala.)

15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that
resembled Nancy Kerrigan’s teeth.
(Paul Kocak, Syracuse, N.Y.)

16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also
never met.
(Russell Beland, Springfield)

17. The thunder was ominous-sounding, much like the sound of a thin sheet of
metal being shaken backstage during the storm scene in a play.
(Barbara Fetherolf, Alexandria)

18. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like
underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.
(Chuck Smith, Woodbridge)

19. The red brick wall was the color of a brick-red Crayola crayon.

20. He knocked on his ex-wife’s door like an EMT scrubbing stain remover in
the back of the ambulance after a long night.

21. He drank like that guy from Phish.

22. Her future was as bright as the before picture in a Rembrandt toothpaste ad.


23. The lenses in his contacts were as dark as diet cola that went flat.

24. They kissed like two kissing-fish, only different.

25. He played the trumpet like a guy who has taken lots of trumpet lessons.

26. She could spread a load of gravel just like the Caterpillar HC-4207G
automated gravel spreading unit, only slower.

27. Her skin was like porcelain, only warm and with tiny cracks and hairs on
it.

28. The young girl rolled playfully down the hill, the way car tires smoke and squeal when spinning on dry pavement.

29. His sermon fit my life so snugly, like pants that are so tight I can hardly bend over when wearing them.