Student Similes

His fountain pen was so expensive it looked as if someone had grabbed the pope, turned him upside down and started writing with the tip of his big pointy hat.
- Jeffrey Carl, Richmond

She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.
- Susan Reese, Arlington

The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.
- Malcolm Fleschner, Arlington

Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.
- Sue Lin Chong, Washington

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

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

The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.
- Russell Beland, Springfield

McBride fell twelve stories, hitting the pavement like a hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.
- Paul Sabourin, Silver Spring

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 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.
- Roy Ashley, Washington

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

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

Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.
- Unknown

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

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 6:36p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.
- Jennifer Hart, Arlington

The politician was gone but unnoticed, like the period after the Dr. on a Dr Pepper can.
- Wayne Goode, Madison,AL

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

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

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

He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant and she was the East River.
- Brian Broadus, Charlottesville

Even in his last years, Grandpappy had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.
- Sandra Hull, Arlington

Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.
- Jerry Pannullo, Kensington

The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.
- Malcolm Fleschner, Arlington

"Oh, Jason, take me!" she panted, her breasts heaving like a college freshman on $1-a-beer night.
- Bonnie Speary Devore, Gaithersburg

He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame. Maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.
- John Kammer, Herndon

Her artistic sense was exquisitely refined, like someone who can tell butter from I Can't Believe It's Not Butter.
- Barbara Collier, Garrett Park

It came down the stairs looking very much like something no one had ever seen before.
- Marian Carlsson, Lexington

The knife was as sharp as the tone used by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.) in her first several points of parliamentary procedure made to Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) in the House Judiciary Committee hearings on the impeachment of President William Jefferson Clinton.
- J. F. Knowles, Springfield

The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.
- Jennifer Hart, Arlington

The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM.
- Paul J. Kocak, Syracuse

It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.
- Brian Broadus, Charlottesville

He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.
- Susan Reese, Arlington

Her eyes were like limpid pools, only they had forgotten to put in any pH cleanser.
- Chuck Smith, Woodbridge

She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.
- Brian Broadus, Charlottesville

Her voice had that tense, grating quality, like a first-generation thermal paper fax machine that needed a band tightened.
- Sue Lin Chong,Washington

It hurt the way your tongue hurts after you accidentally staple it to the wall.
- Brian Broadus, Charlottesville

She was as easy as the "TV Guide" crossword.
- Tom Witte,Gaithersburg

Many of these originated in Douglas Grant's Style Invitational from the Washington Post, July 23, 1995 - since sent around the Internet many times!

Can you do better? Write to Wordskit

Contributions to The Langwidge this year:

Sol Squire, David Lawton

And see acknowledgments from previous years