Fun links

Some fun links for you today. Perfect length for short periods of procrastination: won't completely take over your day, but long enough to make you feel satisfied and ready to go back to work.

The first is from npr (thanks to Chasya from the DGLM blog) that re-imagines some famous moves if they'd been written by Nicholas Sparks.

A snippet:

Grease: The race at Thunder Road ends tragically when Danny flips Kenicke's car and dies in a fiery crash....Sandy tucks his comb into her purse, knowing she must be brave and go through with her makeover. As Frenchy sews her into her pants before Danny's funeral, Sandy sings, "You're in the ground now / like shama-lama-lama, da ding-edy-ding, de-dong."


The second link is the Turkey Lexicon from the SFWA. Even if you're not a Sci-Fi or Fantasy writer, (I'm not) you'll recognize some of these, and if they appear in your own writing, have no fear, nobody needs to know. Some examples from this lexicon;

• Eyeball Kick

Vivid, telling details that create a kaleidoscopic effect of swarming visual imagery against a baroquely elaborate SF background. One ideal of cyberpunk SF was to create a “crammed prose” full of “eyeball kicks.” (Attr. Rudy Rucker)

• The Whistling Dog

A story related in such an elaborate, arcane, or convoluted manner that it impresses by its sheer narrative ingenuity, but which, as a story, is basically not worth the candle. Like the whistling dog, it’s astonishing that the thing can whistle — but it doesn’t actually whistle very well. (Attr. Harlan Ellison)