you're listening to away with words, the show about language and how we use it, I'm Grant Barrett."

And I'm Martha Burnett. The 19th century English writer Edward Bohr Litten is said to have coined

the phrase the pen is mightier than the sword, but he's best remembered for the first line of his

1830 novel called Paul Clifford, and that single long sentence with the help of a semicolon,

a dash in parentheses reads it was a dark and stormy night. The rain fell in torrents,

except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept

up the streets, Ford is in London that our scene lies, rattling along the housetops,

and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.

I actually like that. Yeah, I do some editing, but I think that's the problem. I think I didn't pass

through enough eyes before I was in the page, but I think I still want to read the rest of that.

It's pretty interesting, but as it happens, that sentence inspired the annual Bohr Litten

contest, which as you know, Grant started at San Jose State in 1982. And this is where contestants

try to write these extravagantly awful and clever first sentences that reflect that kind of

florid language and the rapid points of view and that kind of thing. Well, the latest winners

were just announced, and I wasn't crazy about a lot of them, but I really like this runner up.

It's from Mark Meaches in Dallas, and he writes, irony bombasted Inspector Simons,

is when someone believes themselves more clever than anyone else in the room,

but they are, in fact, careless and foolish, and the murderer Matilda Danner,

yes, Matilda, you killed. Wait, where's Matilda?

She did. I want to read the rest of that. That's good, yeah.

I'll share a little bit more later in the show, but for now, we want to talk with you about

any aspect of language whatsoever. So give us a call, 877-929-9673, or send your questions and

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