Misplaced praise a la Nora Ephron: like giving a hooker points for turning a trick

www.visibleink.com

The Simile sDictionary  as a fluid   linguistic tool:  


Nora Ephron  is no longer with us  to enjoy the success of  her play Lucky Guy starring  Tom Hanks.  As part of  its  push  to  promote  the play's  chances  of a Tony Award,  a  beautifully bound copy of  the play as well  as  a Vintage Paperback    of  two  of  Ephron'   column collections -- Crazy Salad (some things about women) & Scribble Scrible (notes on the media)  have been  sent to  critics.

Reading these wonderful essays,   some for the first time,   reinforces  what I already knew:  That Ephron was one  of  our best and wittiest  journalistic voices.  While it's  wonderful  that she left such a rich legacy -- it's  sad   not to  have   a more  current  bunch of  essays on these 1970s  pieces.

While not  someone  who  used similes  excessively,   she did come up with some pungent ones.  Here are a couple, I wish I'd  caught in time to  include  in the   new edition of  Similes Dictionary.

Television was covering the war.  But giving television points for that was a little like giving a hooker points for turning a trick.  -- Ephron   using a simile to make her point about   praise  incorrectly given  ("Bob Haldeman and CBS" from  Scribble Scribble).  In the same piece  she  noted  Mike Wallace's  preparedness  for  doing the Haldeman interview  thorough but  still not  enough  since  she felt  a  print rather than television interviewer was need.  Her simile to sum this up:  "Wallace was stuffed like a Strasburg goose with papers and facts and questions and quotes.

 Here's a link to my review of Ephron's  play
www.curtainup.com/luckyguy.html